Goldfish Scooping

Introduction
Goldfish Scooping is a part of the Sunbreeze Festival. It is a special type of fishing mini-game which lasts for the full duration of the festival. The objective is to accumulate "fortune" points by catching and trading captured goldfish to quest NPCs.

Walkthrough
There are four locations throughout Vana'diel where you can participate in the event. At each location is an NPC who sells event-related items and hands out rewards. Each NPC is sitting near the edge of a small body of water, in which the goldfish may be caught.

When you arrive, you'll need to buy the proper scooping gear from the event NPC. Goldfish-scooping gear is similar to fishing gear, in that it takes up your ranged and ammunition slots. Equip the Goldfish Bowl in your Range slot, and a stack of Super Scoops in your Ammo slot. The Goldfish Bowl is obtained for free, by choosing the &lceil;I'd like a bowl&rfloor; option from the event NPC. Your initial supply of Super Scoops must be purchased for 100 gil apiece under &lceil;I want to buy a scoop&rfloor;. Thereafter, you may continue to buy more scoops, or earn them by trading goldfish to the NPC.

Optional Equipment: In the 2004 version of the festival, the reward for the advanced portion of the quest was a special robe -- either the Lord's Yukata (for males) or the Lady's Yukata (for females). These yukata greatly enhance the success rate of goldfish scooping attempts. If you were lucky enough to obtain one as an event reward, then bring it with you, and equip it before you begin. Otherwise, you might still be able to get one. In Northern San d'Oria, Port Bastok, and Windurst Waters, you can find event moogles selling prizes from previous Sunbreeze Festivals. If available, these moogles will be selling the yukata for 10,000 gil.

Once you're properly equipped, it's time to get your feet wet. Walk out into one of the shallow bodies of water, and use the /fish command (or Fish menu command) to begin a goldfish-scooping cutscene. After several seconds, a message will appear, of the form, &lceil;A goldfish has approached!&rfloor; Once this message appears, you will have a limited time to press the confirm button, or Enter on your keyboard, and scoop up a goldfish. If you wait a while, you'll get a second message, &lceil;Hurry, before the goldfish sees you!&rfloor;. Waiting too long after this second message will allow the goldfish to escape, ending the cutscene. If you succeed, you'll receive one of the three types of goldfish as a reward, which also ends the cutscene.

There are four possible results for each iteration of the goldfish-scooping cutscene. You might also receive the message &lceil;There are no goldfish to be found...&rfloor; a few seconds after using the /fish command. This may occur after several scooping attempts, similar to "fishing fatigue".
 * Success: &lceil;Character obtains a goldfish!&rfloor; Occurs at random when you try to scoop a fish.  A goldfish of the appropriate type is added to your inventory.
 * Failure: &lceil;The goldfish slipped off your scoop.&rfloor; Occurs at random when you try to scoop a fish.  You don't lose anything, but you don't pick up a fish, either.  This outcome seems more likely if you wait too long before trying to scoop.
 * Failure: &lceil;You lost your catch.&rfloor; Occurs at random when you try to scoop a fish.
 * Failure: &lceil;The paper on your super scoop ripped.&rfloor; Occurs at random when you try to scoop a fish.  In addition to missing out on the goldfish, you also lose one of the Super Scoops in your Ammo slot.  This outcome seems more likely if you don't wait long enough before trying to scoop.

Your success rate for scooping goldfish will vary widely. Equipping a goldfish-scooping yukata seems to widen the interval during which your attempt will be successful, but there is some disagreement about how important the timing of your scooping attempt really is, or whether it has any impact at all. The yukata does help to increase your chances at catching 2 tiny goldfish, if only slightly. The "Hurry" message can also sometimes prevent the scooping attempt from happening; in those cases, just try again quickly. Careful timing of the attempts will at least give you the feeling that you're trying to do it right... Though your character will not gain any fishing skillups from goldfish scooping, a higher  skill does seem to improve the success rate. For those of low motivation, waiting 1-2 seconds works as a general rule, especially if you have one of the yukata on, and involves less concentration.

At any time, once you've accumulated some goldfish, you can trade them to one of the event NPCs. The NPC will then tell you how many "years of good fortune" you've gained from your catches. It's this good fortune you'll trade back to the NPC in exchange for the event rewards.
 * Only the NPC in Ronfaure uses the "good fortune" descriptor. The Gustaberg NPC simply calls them "points."

Event Rewards
Talk to the NPC and select the topic &lceil;I'm ready for my prize.&rfloor; You can then select any of the event rewards for which you have sufficient "years of good fortune".