Another game, another guide! Taskmaster here with a simple guide designed to help you get the most enjoyment possible out of Aqua*FIsh. Even though this game is an obvious knock-off of the Fishdom series, which is not available on Steam, Aqua*FIsh is not without some charm of its own. If you can over look the horrible scaling on some levels, at least on the high end resolution I play on - 1920x1080 - there is some match-3 fun to be had!

This guide will mostly cover the actual match-3 portion of the game. Buying fish, plants and knick-knacks from the store and placing them around the tank is pretty simple, and seems to be fairly bug free.

That makes the main purpose of completing a match-3 level merely to earn money to purchase the fish, plants and decorative items for your aquarium. You earn money by completing a level with the highest score possible, which is measured by 1 to 3 gold stars. Complete a level at 1 star to earn $100, 2 stars for $200 or 3 stars to earn $300.

There is no way to track how many stars you earned on a level directly, but there is no real need to either. There are no achievements tied to completing a level with 3 stars. It seems like something that was designed to be more but ultimately left out of the game.

For me, the game screen was "messed up" in that the mermaid shown in the Steam store images shows a sweet mermaid on the left side of the screen. A large shark blocks the mermaid when I play the game regardless of the resolution I select from the launcher. In addition on some levels the bottom row of the game board is all but invisible. The presents a challenge, but I managed to work around it. You can actual see just enough of the token to identify it. If not you can attempt to swap a token with one on the bottom row for a glimpse of what it is.

In case you do not viist the forums at all, the "W" key will allow you to skip a level if you need. I have completed around 60 levels thus far and have not needed to skip any with this trick. Usually a 2nd or 3rd retry is adequate to complete the level on your own.

Keep in mind that there is no time limit on most levels, but there is a move limit. You have to achieve the level objectives within the move count, so keep an eye on the remaining moves.

If you match 5 tokens in a horizontal or vertical row, a special power up is created that I am calling a "wildcard color mine", as it looks like a mine used to destroy ships.



This power up can be wildly effective in completing those difficult levels. When you swap a "wildcard color mine" with another token, every token of the same type is replaced with a copy of the token swapped.



For example, if the "wildcard color mine" in the lower left corner is swapped with the "orange boom bag", then every orange sea shell will be replaced with an "orange boom bag"! Refer to the image below which illustrates this behavior.



The same behavior occurs if you match a powered up token, such as the powered purple token, shown below.



Every purple token is then upgraded to the equivalent token. This results in large scores when they are all activated when the level is completed.



Finally, there is one more cool ability offered by the "wildcard color mine" that will help complete a level. It requires a bit of luck as well as some skill, but if you can manage to maneuver two "wildcard color mines" so they are adjacent, you can unleash their full power!



Swap the two "wildcard color mine" tokens to create a full board explosion that will take out one layer of blocks, tiles and ice. If the board has 2x tiles, then they will be reduced to 1x tiles, but any 1x tiles will be removed. This can be a life saver on a tougher level.

Aside from the various graphical glitches in Aqua*Fish, it seems there was more to the game when it was an app. I do not own a cell phone so I do not know if it was an app or not, but just guessing based on the game play, and on "level 102".



Once you complete level 100 and 101, you can advance to level 102, which is not a level at all but the "progress" screen apparently. It does not function fully, but you can see the remainders of in-app purchases for gems. You can also see your progress on a few levels and determine if you garnered 3 stars on the level or not. I was not able to "scroll" the view up, so it is of limited use. A little fishy!

As always, I want to express my appreciation to you for taking the time to peruse this guide. If something stood out and you wanted to leave a comment - either positive or negative - I am open, just be civil please. There is always room to improve.

You can also find my other game guide using the link below. Please check them out... you might be surprised what you find.

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