Money comes from selling what you catch, and the number on the sell box is not the number in the catalogue. Four things scale it, and two of them are entirely under your control.
What a catch is actually worth
The game starts from the creature’s base value and multiplies:
- The weight roll, which is random per creature and lands between 0.25x and 1.75x.
- How well it is cooked, if you grilled it.
- The kill bonus multiplier, which is the product of every bonus you earned on that kill.
- Any betting multiplier the creature is carrying.
What are you trying to do?
Earn faster in the mid game
The lure decides the floor. Move to the next lure the moment its island sells it, and cook before you sell: the grill alone is half again on every catch.
Hit the 100,000 sale
Start from the creature with the highest base value you can reach, cook it to the peak, and
take the kill with as many bonuses as you can line up. The
Mutated Bowhead WhaleMutated Bowhead WhaleSells for$15,000Health38,000Weight125 kg – 875 kg sells for 15,000; cooked to the peak
(1.5×) with a top weight roll (1.75×) that is 39,375, so the kill bonuses have to multiply
to about 2.5: Impressive alone is 2×, and any one other bonus of 1.3× or more on top of the
five that trigger it gets you there. The other route is the roulette table: green pays 35×,
so any catch worth more than 1,905 raw, cooked to the peak before it goes on the table, wins
the achievement in one spin, at the risk of losing it.
The weight roll averages out over a session, and cooking is a fixed routine. The kill multiplier is where the actual decisions are.
Kill bonuses multiply, and they stack
Every bonus the game awards is a multiplier, and they multiply together rather than adding. Land five of them on one kill and the game adds a sixth called Impressive, worth double on its own.
| Bonus | Multiplier | When it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Impressive | 2.00x | Five or more other bonuses landed on the same kill. |
| Explosion | 1.50x | Killed by an explosion. |
| Dogfight | 1.50x | Both you and the creature were airborne. |
| 360 | 1.50x | You spun a full turn just before the kill. |
| Longshot | 1.30x | The target is at least 25 metres from your camera. |
| Killsteal | 1.30x | You had not damaged the creature and it was already under 30% health. |
| Endangered Species | 1.25x | The creature is an endangered species. |
| Headshot | 1.25x | The shot lands past the creature's head point. |
| One Shot One Kill | 1.25x | One hit takes the creature from full health to dead. |
| Overkill | 1.25x | Damage overshoots the creature's remaining health by more than 70, bosses excluded. |
| Last Bullet | 1.25x | The shot empties the magazine. |
| Aerial | 1.25x | You were off the ground when it died. |
| Fly Fishing | 1.25x | The creature was airborne when it died. |
| No Scope | 1.20x | Fired a scoped weapon without aiming down sights. |
| Penta Kill | 1.20x | Fifth kill in a chain. |
| Quadra Kill | 1.15x | Fourth kill in a chain. |
| Point Blank | 1.10x | The target is under 2 metres away. |
| Quick Scope | 1.10x | Fired immediately after aiming down sights. |
| Finally | 1.10x | Awarded after a long run without a kill. |
| Triple Kill | 1.10x | Third kill in a chain. |
| Melee | 1.05x | Killed with a melee weapon. |
| Double Kill | 1.05x | Second kill in a chain. |
| Noob Kill | 1.01x | Nothing else applied to the kill. |
A plain melee kill on a common fish is 1.05x. The same fish shot at range, in the air, on the last bullet in the magazine, hits three bonuses before Impressive is even in play. That is why two players fishing the same table can end a session thousands apart.
The one to build around Impressive doubles the whole kill once five other bonuses have landed. Everything else is worth chasing mainly because it gets you to five.
The bonuses and how each one is triggered are explained in how damage and kill score work.
Which bait pays best per cast
Ignoring bonuses for a moment, a bait’s honest rate is the average value of its table minus the share of the bait price you lose each catch.
| Bait | Price | Sold on | Bite timer | Used up | Average catch | Profit per catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner Lure | $3 | Island 2+ | 1s–3s | 35% | $13 | $12 |
| Standard Lure | $15 | Island 3+ | 1s–2.5s | 30% | $64 | $60 |
| Professional Lure | $50 | Island 4+ | 1s–2s | 25% | $319 | $306 |
| Scientific Lure | $500 | Island 5+ | 0.75s–1.5s | 20% | $1,528 | $1,428 |
Average catch is the mean sell value of the bait's own table. Profit subtracts the share of the bait price you lose per catch; a quest reward costs nothing, so its profit is the catch. Both figures are for an average weight roll, before cooking.
Each tier is worth roughly five times the one below it, and the
Scientific LureScientific LureCosts$500Bite timer0.75–1.5sCatches5 creatures also has the shortest bite window in the game, so it
wins on both value and rate. The only question is when you can afford it, which
which lure to buy works through.
The catches worth going out of your way for
Some creatures are worth far more than the table they sit on suggests.
| Creature | Sells for | Health | Best bait for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutated Bowhead Whale | $15,000 | 38,000 | Not on any bait table |
 Albatross | $13,000 | 7,800 | Not on any bait table |
 Pufferfish | $12,000 | 18,000 | Carrot (100%) |
 Giant Piranha | $11,000 | 2,500 | Leech Bait (100%) |
 Spider Crab | $10,000 | 750 | Empty Beer Can (100%) |
 Bowhead Whale | $8,000 | 20,000 | Fish Bucket (100%) |
 Goblin Shark | $6,200 | 7,500 | Scientific Boss Lure (100%) |
 Superdwarf Fish | $2,200 | 120 | Scientific Lure (10%) |
 Tuna | $2,000 | 6,000 | Professional Boss Lure (100%) |
 Anglerfish | $1,500 | 500 | Scientific Lure (25%) |
 Stonefish | $1,500 | 800 | Scientific Lure (25%) |
 Oarfish | $1,450 | 1,000 | Scientific Lure (15%) |
Bosses dominate that list, and they are one-off events rather than a farm. Among the creatures
you can fish repeatedly, the Superdwarf FishSuperdwarf FishSells for$2,200Health120Weight0.000025 kg – 0.000175 kg stands out: it is
worth more than four of the six mini-bosses and it sits on a normal lure table.
Endangered species are a free 25%
Nine creatures carry the endangered flag, and every kill on one of them adds a flat 1.25x before anything else you did. They are not harder to catch than their neighbours on the same table.
| Creature | Sells for | Best chance | Best bait for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pufferfish | $12,000 | 100% | Carrot (100%) |
| Superdwarf Fish | $2,200 | 10% | Scientific Lure (10%) |
| Oarfish | $1,450 | 15% | Scientific Lure (15%) |
 Dripper | $380 | 3.8% | Professional Lure (3.8%) |
 Voxelfish | $340 | 3.8% | Professional Lure (3.8%) |
 Bing Bong | $300 | 100% | Coconut (100%) |
 Bowlfish | $150 | 4.3% | Standard Lure (4.3%) |
 Seahorse | $100 | 4.3% | Standard Lure (4.3%) |
 Needlefish | $60 | 11.6% | Standard Lure (11.6%) |
If you are farming for money and one of these shares a table with your target, it is worth letting the table decide rather than throwing them back.
Next The weight roll decides how far a single catch swings from its catalogue price. Weight and value has the distribution.