Ye Olde Fishing Vortex – A Guide

This vortex was discovered during the rebuilding of Maraqua, and its find was announced on the 20th of Relaxing (June) back in 2005, with claims of fish, large and small, and variety of rare (and not so rare!) items available to be caught. There is a total of 88 different items you can catch, ranging from fish to books, Battledome items to squid, and garden items to magical potions. Also, if you are super lucky, you may even be able to catch a paint brush, as confirmed in the editorial in issue 329; however, as mentioned, the chances of catching this ares extremely low. Lucky for you and your Neopets, all the fish you catch can be eaten, all bar two (unless you are the owner of a Skeith or Grarrl, who will eat anything they can get their hands on!): the Rockfish and Neopet-Eating Carp. Well, who would want to eat some rocks and something that wants to eat you anyway!

The more you fish and catch, the higher your level will become; however gaining this level occurs randomly, so you may go days without gaining a level. There is one other way you can increase your fishing level, which is to read Fishing Made Easy to your Neopet, who can gain 1, 2 or 3 fishing levels. This book will only allow your Neopet to gain levels only when it first reads it. You can either buy this book from users, or, if you are skilled enough, catch it in the vortex itself. There is cap on how high your fishing level can reach, which is level 500, although you will be able to continue fishing once you reach this level.

Be warned, however, if you move your Neopet to a side account or transfer with another person, the Neopet’s fishing level will reset to level 0, meaning all your hard work fishing will go down the drain. However, if you do transfer back to your main, all the levels will be restored, meaning your hard work will be returned and endless tries of gaining levels will not have been for nothing!

Below is a selection of some of my personal favourite items that are available to catch from the darkest depths of the fishing vortex.

Bag of Broken Neopoints

Due to the large amount of Neopians visiting the vortex, you can expect some people to lose their neopoints into the dark depths of the water. However, you may be lucky enough to reel in the lost bag. You can repair the bag by taking a trip to the top of Terror Mountain and paying a visiting to Donny’s Toy Repair Shop, where he can fix your bag. For a small fee, or if you are lucky for free, you can receive a small amount of neopoints, ranging for 1,000 neopoints to 2,000 neopoints. Although not a large amount of profit, every little amount of neopoints helps!

Pike Pike

The Pike Pike is, out of the four possible weapons, the best Battledome item that can be fished from the vortex. It can be caught any time your Neopet has a fishing level over 70. This 9-icon weapon sells for about 95,000 neopoints, so you can make a nice profit if you can catch one.

Pant Devil Attractor

This useful item can be kept in your inventory all the time and should save any valuable items in your inventory. It protects your items from when the Pant Devil strikes, as it will attract the Pant Devil to the attractor, so the attractor will be stolen, and not your precious treasures. However, this won’t protect from Grundo Leaders or the Shadow Usul, so always keep your valuables safe by keeping them in your safety deposit box or gallery.

Irritable Genie-in-a-Bottle

This potion can be caught once your Neopet’s fishing level is over 60. Once the irritable genie is released from the bottle, your active Neopet will gain between 1-3 levels, which can save you lots of time on training, if you need to quickly gain some levels. This one-use item can be used several times on the same Neopet, however, so you could easily gain 9 levels in a few minutes, saving a lot of time.

Mysterious Swirly Potion

This mysterious looking potion does something very special: change your non-limited edition pet into a random limited edition pet of the same colour. For example, if you have a Spotted Nimmo and use the potion on it, it may change into a Spotted Koi. However, be warned; if you use the potion and your Neopet turns into a Limited Edition Neopet of a species that does not have the colour your original Neopet had, it will change into a random basic colour, red, blue, yellow or green. For example, if you use the potion on your Spotted Nimmo, it may change to a basic coloured Hissi, as Hissis do not have a Spotted colour.

Flask of Rainbow Fountain Water

This is one of the most wanted items from the vortex, and does what it says on the bottle; it will randomly change your Neopet into any available random colour. Unlike the Mysterious Swirly Potion, it will not change your Neopet’s species. Your Neopet can be changed into nearly all colours, including basic colours. Unlike the Fountain Faerie, this flask may change your Neopet into colours not available at the Fountain Faerie, such as Royal and Baby. Once used, the potion will vanish, so if you are not happy with the colour change, you will have to buy another and try your luck again.

I hope this guide has made fishing in the Vortex easier, and you now know what great items you can receive. Happy Fishing!