How to play TideBound

Cast, hook, land

1. Cast.Hold CAST (or Space) and a power meter swings back and forth. Drag sideways to aim, so a ring shows where the lure will land, and let go to throw. A quick tap throws straight out at medium power.
2. Watch.The camera follows the lure under the water and circles your hook. Each fish decides once per cast whether it wants your bait. A keen one swims over, circles, nibbles, and then either bites or backs off.
3. Hook it.When you see "BITE! HOOK IT!", press HOOK (or Space) quickly: the window is under a second and a half. Miss it and you lose one of the three bites of bait you have for that cast.
4. Fight and land it.Hold REEL to bring the fish in while you answer what it does. More on that below.

While the lure is out you can twitch it with SHAKE OFF or wind it back with REEL IN. In the deep-water spots the rig sinks, and FISH IT HERE stops it at the depth you want.

Winning fights

A hooked fish doesn't just come in. It runs, dives, jumps, sulks and thrashes, and the trick is to answer each move while keeping an eye on the tension bar. Too much tension snaps the line; too little lets the hook work loose.

• Tension in the redLet go of REEL. The line recovers on its own, faster with a better rod.
• A runSwipe the way the arrow points. Reeling straight into a run is what snaps lines.
• A jumpTap as the fish leaves the water to bow the rod. Every jump you miss loosens the hook.
• A sulkThe fish stops and ignores the reel. Tap to pump it up, and stop tapping when the bar goes red.

Each landed fish gets a grade from S to C, and better grades pay more coins. You can also learn techniques from the mentors (Calm Waters, for example, freezes the tension for three seconds) and fire them during a fight. A second technique slot opens at level 10.

Controls

Left-handed? Settings has a left-handed mode that swaps REEL and the buttons to the other side, plus text size, captions, reduced motion and graphics quality.

Where to fish

There are ten places to fish, and they open up as you level. Three of them you fish from a boat.

• Willow PondWhere everyone starts.
• Stonebrook RiverLevel 4
• Clearwater LakeLevel 6
• Sunspire ReefLevel 8
• Bluewater DropLevel 12, by boat
• Tidewater MangrovesLevel 16
• Frostbite FjordLevel 20, by boat
• The Drowned FleetLevel 24
• Abyssal TrenchLevel 28, by boat
• The ShelfThe championship, with a weekly leaderboard

There are 63 species, seven to a region, from common up to mythic. Your album keeps your best size for each, marks trophies, tells you the hours each fish feeds, and lists the ones that got away.

Every region also has a boss, and bosses never swim in the open. Hook a rare-or-better fish with a strong enough rod, keep it on the line for a while, and the region's boss may ambush it.

Rods, lures and bait

Fish pay coins (rarer fish, better grades and first catches pay more), and coins buy gear in the Tackle Shop. Coins can only be earned, never bought.

Rods

Starter (free), then Fiberglass, Carbon, Titan, Koi Master, Offshore Stand-up and the Abyssal Rig. Each one needs a higher level and more coins. Better rods recover from tension faster, and the big bosses only show up for strong rods.

Lures

Garden Worm (free), Spinner, Popper, Deep Jig and Glow Squid. The Popper and Glow Squid also give you a little longer to hook a bite.

Bait

Trophy Brew rolls a fish's size twice and keeps the bigger one. Boss Chum makes sure the next boss ambush happens. Both are used up when you use them.

Weather and events

• Weather changes between clear, overcast, rain and storm. Fish get keener as it gets worse, and storms are the best time to fish.
• Time of day follows your real clock, so dawn, dusk and night in the game match yours. Some fish only feed at certain hours.
• Daily quests: three a day, plus a catch of the day that pays double.
• The weekly tournament at The Shelf: everyone uses the same rig, and the fastest time wins. The board resets every Monday.
• Storm weekends: the first weekend of each month, most regions are held in a storm, and your first rare-or-better catch earns a special jacket.

Tips

1. Let go when it's red.Holding REEL through red tension is how most lines snap. A second's pause is almost always enough.
2. Never reel into a run.Swipe with the arrow, and reel again once the fish turns.
3. Bow on every jump.Missed jumps loosen the hook, and on big fish they add up.
4. Use SHAKE OFF carefully.It scares common and rare fish away, but it makes an epic-or-better fish that's circling your lure strike now.
5. Fish in bad weather and at feeding times.Rain and storms make fish keener, and the album and map show which fish are feeding now.
6. Back up your save.The title screen's "Copy save" gives you a code you can paste on another device.