Fish Tank Bundles
| Fish Tank Bundles | |
|---|---|
| Type | Bundle |
| Location | Community Center |
| Bundles | 6 |
| Reward | Glittering Boulder Removed |
The Fish Tank is the scroll room built around the cracked aquarium in the Community Center, and it opens as soon as one bundle anywhere in the building is filled. Every scroll in it wants fish, sorted by the water they live in rather than by how hard they are to land, which means the room is really a tour of every pond, river and stretch of coast in the valley across a full year. Finishing it sends the Junimos to shift the glittering boulder that blocks the stream beside the entrance to The Mines, and the following day Willy hands over a Copper Pan for pulling ore and other goods out of open water. The cracked aquarium is mended at the same time and becomes a real tank that can be stocked and decorated. It is the least urgent room reward in the building, so the Fish Tank is usually finished for love of fishing or for completion rather than for the prize at the end.
Overview
This room is gated by weather and by the clock more than by anything else. A fair number of its fish only bite in rain, several only in a single season, and a handful only inside a four-hour window, so progress comes in bursts rather than steadily. Rainy days are the ones to spend by the water, and a Rain Totem is worth crafting purely to unlock a rain-only fish out of its usual season.
Fishing skill sets the pace early. The starting rod handles the easy catches, but a good part of this room cannot be hooked until the rod has been upgraded, and the fiddliest fish in the room sit above what a beginner can land at all. For that reason the room usually starts with the Ocean and Crab Pot scrolls, which are forgiving, and finishes with the Specialty and Night scrolls, which are not.
Two of the scrolls also reach outside the room's own progress. A Sandfish lives only in the oasis pond in the Calico Desert, and the desert only opens once the bus is running, which means the Vault has to be paid off before the Specialty scroll can be closed. A Pufferfish bites only on a sunny Summer afternoon, so a farmer who spends that one Summer underground loses a year on a single fish.
The farm map matters as well. A Riverlands, Hill-Top or Forest farm has river fish on its own land, a Wilderness farm has lake fish in its pond, and a Beach farm has the ocean at the door, which turns the awkward early-morning and late-night catches into a short walk.
Bundles
The Crab Pot scroll is the quickest in the room and can be closed in the first week without owning a single Crab Pot. The Ocean scroll is next, needing only Summer or Fall and one rainy day. The Lake and River scrolls are both held up by one fish each, and the Night and Specialty scrolls are the long tail.
A sensible order is Crab Pot first to open the rest of the building, then Ocean, then Lake across Summer and Winter, then River once Fall arrives, then Night Fishing on the first rainy Fall day, and Specialty last because of the desert and the Pufferfish. The one piece of timing to force rather than wait for is the Pufferfish: it has a single short window each year, and missing it is the most common reason this room runs into a second year.
River Fish Bundle
Three of these four want weather or a season of their own, so the river scroll cannot be rushed. Sunfish is the friendly one, biting on sunny days in the town river through Spring and Summer and landing easily on a starting rod. Shad needs rain and keeps late hours, which makes it a job for a wet evening rather than a morning.
Catfish is the fish that holds the scroll up. It bites only in rain, and in the main river only in Spring and Fall. The pond in the Secret Woods is the useful loophole, because a Catfish will take a line there in Summer rain as well, which turns a wasted wet Summer day into progress. In Winter the river gives nothing, so a Rain Totem is the only way to force a Catfish out of season.
Tiger Trout is the other brake, since it only appears in Fall and Winter and does not care about the weather. That makes Fall the earliest point at which the whole scroll can close, because Fall is the first season holding both a Catfish and a Tiger Trout. Both of those two also sit above what the beginner's Training Rod can hook, so an upgraded rod comes first. The reward is a large stack of Deluxe Bait, which shortens the wait for a bite considerably and widens the catch bar, and it is the single most useful thing to be holding while chasing the rest of this room.
The bundle wants all four items below.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sunfish | 
|
Found in Rivers, 6am to 7pm, Spring and Summer during sunny weather |
| Catfish | 
|
Found in Rivers and Secret Woods, 6am to midnight, Spring and Fall. Only when raining Can be found in Summer during rain in the Secret Woods and Witch's Swamp, Winter with a Rain Totem |
| Shad | 
|
Found in Rivers, 9am to 2am, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Only when raining |
| Tiger Trout | 
|
Found in Rivers, 6am to 7pm, Fall and Winter. Can be found in any weather |
All River Fish can be found in the Riverlands Farm, Hill-Top Farm, or Forest Farm.
Lake Fish Bundle
Everything here lives in the mountain lake above the mines, and three of the four bite in any weather at almost any hour, which makes this the most relaxed scroll in the room on paper. Carp is the easiest fish in the valley and comes in on the first cast. Bullhead bites at any hour in any season. Largemouth Bass keeps daytime hours all year and is the first of the four that needs a real rod.
Sturgeon is the problem. It bites only in Summer and Winter, only in daylight, and it is a strong fighter, so a farmer who meets the scroll in Spring or Fall has to wait for the next window. Winter is the forgiving half of that pair, because there is little else to do on the farm and the lake is still open. A heavier line helps more than patience here: the slower bite rate makes bait and a bite-rate tackle worth using even though the fish itself is in a convenient place.
The reward is a Dressed Spinner, a tackle that cuts the delay before a nibble by a useful margin. The catch is that tackle only clips onto an Iridium Rod, so a farmer who claims this reward early will put it in a chest and forget it for a season or two. Tackle also wears out after a set number of bites, which makes the Dressed Spinner a treat for a serious fishing day rather than an everyday tool.
The bundle wants all four items below.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Largemouth Bass | 
|
Found in the Mountain Lake, 6am to 7pm, All Seasons |
| Carp | 
|
Found in the Mountain Lake, Anytime, during Spring, Summer, or Fall Found in Secret Woods or Sewer, Anytime, All Seasons |
| Bullhead | 
|
Found in the Mountain Lake, Anytime, All Seasons |
| Sturgeon | 
|
Found in the Mountain Lake, 6am to 7pm, Summer and Winter |
All Mountain Lake Fish can be found in any weather, and in the Wilderness Farm.
Ocean Fish Bundle
This is the easiest of the fishing scrolls and the one to open the room with. All four live off the beach or in the tide pools, and three of them keep ordinary daylight hours. Sardine is the beginner's fish and comes in through Spring, Fall and Winter. Red Snapper wants rain, which means one wet day in Summer or Fall covers it.
Tilapia is the only one with a real trap on it, and the trap is the clock rather than the calendar: it stops biting in the early afternoon, so a farmer who arrives at the beach after lunch will spend the day catching everything except the fish needed. Going down at dawn solves it. Tuna is the one that forces a second trip, because it wants Summer or Winter while Red Snapper and Tilapia want Summer or Fall. A single rainy Summer day can cover three of the four at once.
The reward is a handful of Warp Totem: Beach. Each one teleports a farmer to the shore on the spot, which saves the long walk south on exactly the kind of day this room demands: a rainy morning when the useful fishing window is short. They are consumable, so they are best spent on the Eel and the Pufferfish rather than on ordinary trips.
The bundle wants all four items below.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sardine | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 6am to 7pm, Spring, Fall, and Winter |
| Tuna | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 6am to 7pm, Summer and Winter |
| Red Snapper | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 6am to 7pm, Summer and Fall. Only when raining |
| Tilapia | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 6am to 2pm, Summer and Fall |
Night Fishing Bundle
Every fish here bites after the working day is done, which makes this scroll a question of staying out late and accepting the lost energy. Bream is the kind one: any river, any season, any weather, from early evening onwards, and gentle enough for a starting rod.
Walleye is the choke point. It wants rain and it wants Fall, and outside Fall the only way to reach it is a Rain Totem used in Winter. It does at least turn up in several bodies of water, including the forest pond, so it is a matter of weather rather than travel. Eel is the hardest to land of the three: it bites in the ocean, only in rain, only in Spring or Fall, and only from late afternoon into the small hours. It also fights hard, so a decent rod and a bobber that holds the catch bar steady are worth having before trying.
Because Walleye and Eel both need rain and both share Fall, one wet Fall evening spent at the beach and then at the river can close the whole scroll in a single night. That is the plan worth waiting for rather than grinding at it. The reward is a Glow Ring, which lights a wide circle around the farmer and makes the rest of the night fishing, and every early trip into the mines, far less blind. It is at its most valuable in exactly the part of the game where this room is being worked on.
The bundle wants all three items below.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Walleye | 
|
Found in Rivers, the Mountain Lake, and Cindersap Forest Pond, 12pm to 2am, Fall (Winter with Rain Totem.) Only when raining |
| Bream | 
|
Found in Rivers, 6pm to 2am, All Seasons |
| Eel | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 4pm to 2am, Spring or Fall. Only when raining |
Crab Pot Bundle
This scroll looks like it requires equipment and does not. Only half the shown creatures are needed, and four of them lie on the beach as ordinary forage: a walk along the sand turns up cockles, mussels, oysters and clams without a line in the water. The fifth can be a Crab, which drops from the Rock Crabs met on the way down through The Mines. A farmer who has never crafted a Crab Pot can therefore finish this scroll in the first week, which is why it is the best candidate for the single bundle that opens the rest of the Community Center.
For anyone who does own pots, the split is worth knowing: lobster, crab, cockle, mussel, shrimp, oyster and clam come out of saltwater pots, while crayfish, snail and periwinkle come out of fresh. A row of pots along the Farm Pond or the river fills the freshwater side overnight with no attention at all.
The reward is a few Crab Pots, which is a mild joke given that the scroll can be done without them, but they are genuinely useful afterwards. Pots left in water produce every day with no effort, their catch adds to the bait supply through recycling, and the freshwater creatures they bring in are wanted by cooking recipes later.
The bundle has five slots, and any five of the ten items below fill it.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Lobster | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean) |
| Crayfish | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (freshwater) |
| Crab | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean), drops from Rock Crabs or Lava Crabs in The Mines |
| Cockle | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean), Beach Foraging |
| Mussel | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean), Beach Foraging |
| Shrimp | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean) |
| Snail | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (freshwater) |
| Periwinkle | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (freshwater) |
| Oyster | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean), Beach Foraging |
| Clam | 
|
Caught in Crab Pots (ocean), Beach Foraging |
Specialty Fish Bundle
This is the scroll that decides whether the room closes in year one, and it does so for two separate reasons. The first is the Pufferfish. It bites off the beach on sunny Summer afternoons inside a window of a few hours, and nowhere else at any other time, so the whole scroll can rest on remembering one afternoon in one season. It also fights hard. The Traveling Cart is the recognised escape route, since it stocks a Pufferfish surprisingly often, and a farmer who missed the window is better off checking the cart than waiting a year.
The second reason is the Sandfish, which swims only in the oasis pond out in the Calico Desert. Reaching the desert means the bus, and the bus means the Vault scrolls paid in full, so this scroll usually cannot close before a large pile of gold has gone into another room. The remaining two are pleasant by comparison: a Ghostfish comes out of the still pools deep in The Mines, or off a Ghost killed on the middle floors, and a Woodskip lives in the pond in the Secret Woods at any hour in any season, which makes it the one fish here with no condition on it at all.
The reward is a small stack of Dish O' The Sea, a cooked meal that restores a good deal of energy and raises fishing skill for several minutes. Eaten rather than sold, it is exactly the right thing to carry while finishing the awkward catches in this room, since a temporary fishing boost makes a hard fish easier to land.
The bundle wants all four items below.
| Item | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Pufferfish | 
|
Found in the Ocean, 12pm to 4pm, Summer during sunny weather |
| Ghostfish | 
|
Found in ponds in The Mines floors 20 and 60, Anytime, All Seasons. May also be dropped by Ghosts |
| Sandfish | 
|
Found in the pond in The Desert, 6am to 8pm, All Seasons |
| Woodskip | 
|
Found in the Secret Woods and the Forest Farm, Anytime, All Seasons |
Rewards
The individual rewards here are unusually well matched to the work. Deluxe Bait and the Dressed Spinner both speed up bites, the Glow Ring makes night fishing bearable, the beach totems cut the walking, and Dish O' The Sea raises the skill that the room is testing. Taken in the right order, the early rewards make the later scrolls easier, which is not true of every room in the building.
The Dressed Spinner is the one to put aside rather than use, because tackle needs an Iridium Rod and wears out with use. The Crab Pots are the cheapest reward in the room, since the recipe for them is learned early anyway, but free ones still save wood and iron.
The room reward is the quietest in the Community Center. Shifting the glittering boulder does not open a new area; it opens a new activity. The Copper Pan that Willy brings the next day lets a farmer collect from the shimmering spots that appear in any water, which yields ore, coal, geodes and the occasional better find, and it works in every body of water in the valley rather than in one place. For a farm that hates the mines, a pan is a steady trickle of metal with no monsters attached. The mended aquarium is pure decoration, though it can be stocked with fish and fittings afterwards, and it begins life with a catfish, a sunfish and a snail already swimming in it.
The table pairs each bundle with what it pays.
| Bundle | Reward | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| River Fish Bundle | Deluxe Bait | 
|
30 |
| Lake Fish Bundle | Dressed Spinner | 
|
1 |
| Ocean Fish Bundle | Warp Totem: Beach | 
|
5 |
| Night Fishing Bundle | Glow Ring | 
|
1 |
| Crab Pot Bundle | Crab Pot | 
|
3 |
| Specialty Fish Bundle | Dish O' The Sea | 
|
5 |
Strategy
Treat rain as the signal. Catfish, Shad, Red Snapper, Walleye and Eel all need it, and a single wet Fall day covers more of this room than a week of sunshine. Keep a Rain Totem for the Winter gaps, when a Catfish or a Walleye can be forced out of season.
Upgrade the rod before worrying about the awkward fish. Several of these catches cannot be hooked with the beginner's Training Rod at all, and a sturdier rod with bait on it turns a frustrating afternoon into a productive one. Carry food, because night fishing and dawn starts both run the energy bar down fast.
Plan the two fixed windows. Mark the Pufferfish for a sunny Summer afternoon at the beach, and mark the Sturgeon for Summer or Winter at the mountain lake. Those two are the fish that push this room into a second year. Check the Traveling Cart whenever it visits, because it sells fish often enough to rescue a missed window.
Finally, do not ship the catch of a good day without looking at it first. Fish are tempting to sell in bulk because they stack and because an early farm needs gold, and a single sardine or carp sold by mistake is a wasted trip back to the water. Selecting a fish in the player menu sets the little golden scroll beating if any scroll in the building is still short of it.
Notes
The scrolls in this room accept any quality, so the small, ugly first catch of a species counts exactly as much as a perfect one. That makes it worth donating the first of each fish and selling the rest.
A save made with randomised bundles can swap the Specialty scroll for one asking for four particular fish at gold quality, or for one asking for the real trophies of the valley, including a Lava Eel from the bottom of the mines and a Blobfish from the Night Market submarine. Both variants give the same cooked reward, and both are considerably harder than the standard scroll, so a remixed save may push this room well into the second year.
Crab pots and beach forage share several creatures, which is why the Crab Pot scroll is so forgiving, and the same overlap means a farmer with pots in the water will often find the scroll already complete without having tried. A farmer who takes the JojaMart membership instead pays Morris to clear the boulder through the Joja Community Development Form, which skips every reward these scrolls hand out along the way.
All Bundles
Every room of the Community Center, with the number of bundles it holds and what finishing them repairs.
| Name | Bundles | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Crafts Room Bundles | 6 | Bridge Repair |
| Pantry Bundles | 6 | Greenhouse |
| Fish Tank Bundles | 6 | Glittering Boulder Removed |
| Boiler Room Bundles | 3 | Minecarts Repaired |
| Bulletin Board Bundles | 5 | Friendship |
| Vault Bundles | 4 | Bus Repair |
| The Missing Bundle | 1 | Movie Theater |
| Joja Community Development Form | 5 | Bought with gold |