Introduction
Goldfish Scooping is a part of the Sunbreeze Festival!. It normally begins before the main event of the festival and can be done the entire festival season. It's your objective to get Goldfish Scooping points by catching and trading certain fish to Goldfish Scooping Vendors.
Basics
There are four Goldfish Scooping Vendors infront of waters, where you can catch 3 goldfishes of diffrent worth:
| Location | NPC | Waters |
|---|---|---|
| West Ronfaure (G-10) | Saradorial | Knightwell |
| South Gustaberg (E-8) | Fish Eyes | The Fumaroles |
| East Sarutabaruta (H-8) | Kesha Shopehllok | Nompipi River |
| Rabao (F-7) | Mei | Rabao Spring |
| Goldfish | Points |
|---|---|
| Tiny Goldfish | 1 |
| Black Bubble-Eye | 2 |
| Lionhead | 10 |
First of all you need the correct fishing equipment: A Goldfish Bowl in your ranged slot and Super Scoops in your ammonition slot.
A bowl can be obtained from goldfish scooping vendors under the topic "I'd like a bowl" for free. The only condition is that this bowl is your goldfish scooping points counter. If you get the idea to throw it away, all accumulated points so far are lost and you have to start with a new bowl from the beginning. The Super Scoops can be bought for 100 gil (stackable to 12) under "I want to buy a scoop" at the four vendors.
If you are lucky and have one of those two items (Lady's yukata or Lord's yukata: both could be bought at the Sunbreeze Festival! 2005, 2006, and 2007 or quested at the Summerfestival 2004), you should equip your gender yukata now. The scooping improvement is very noticeable especially for Black Bubble-Eyes.
The procedure is now to either type /fish or to use your ingame menu "Fishing" at the waters showed at the table above. You have to wait for a sentence like "a tiny goldfish has approached" (tiny goldfish = tiny goldfish; plump, black goldfish = black Bubble-Eye; fat, juicy goldfish = Lionhead). Press your confirm button/enter after this. You could also wait a moment till the gamesystem warns you, that you maybe lose the fish. There is also a message that you lost the fish out of sight, when you wait too long.
Results are either you caught the fish, the fish slipped of your scoop or your scoop ripped (= lost the bait).
It is possible to accumulate fishing fatigue and instead of a fish you will get the sentence "There are no goldfish to be found...".
The results differ very much. Yukatas help a lot for catching goldfish. The waiting time after "the ... appears" seems also relevant. Pressing the confirm button immediately often results in ripped scoops and waiting too long results in slipped fish. You don't get fishing skillups, even if you have 0 skill, but your fishing skill also improves your results.
Correct scooping needs a bit of training and timefeeling.
Added note: It seems that you have two chances, one as you get message that you see the fish, and another after warning that it might see you or get away. A good way to get a feel of your timing is to read the messages, for example
(early) Ripped scoop - Slipped off - Caught fish - Lost - To late (late)'
After hours of testing both during the 2006 and 2007 events I don't believe this to be the case. The warning 'Hurry before the goldfish sees you!' always seems to block attempts to catch the fish as the message appears, usually resulting in a lost catch. Waiting for around 1 to 2 seconds after the '...goldfish approaches!' message works a majority of the time when using the Lord's/Lady's yukata and will speed up goldfish scooping immensely.
You can trade your goldfishes any time to the vendor, who rewards you with points.
The points can be used under the topic "I'm ready for my prize".
And remember, dont eat the goldfishes: "What's eating you" (subtopic under "Tell me how to play", when you ask one of the vendors).
Prizes
| Super Scoop | 5 points |
| Bag of fireworks (random fireworks) | 15 points |
| Large fans (Summer Fans or Festive Fans) | 25 points |
| Colored drop (random "colored" drops) | 30 points |
| Mystery box (Spirit Masque x12) | 50 points |
| Other mystery box (Goldfish Set) | 80 points |