Are you sick of the balls bouncing everywhere except for inside the fish bowls on the Gold Fishin’ arcade game? Follow these simple tips to help give you the best shot to score points and win big.
Tips and Tricks to Beat Gold Fishin’ at the Arcade
1. Important Information about Gold Fishin’
Stats for Gold Fishin’ can be different depending on the settings of the arcade location you play at. These are the most common settings at Dave and Buster’s. To see the range of numbers that are possible, you can read the Gold Fishin’ manual.
Gold Fishin’ gives you 12 ping pong balls per round.
Your objective is to shoot these balls into the fish bowls.
There are 100 point bowls on the outside that are lit up pink. Then moving towards the middle there are 200 points (yellow bowls), 300 points (blue bowls), and finally a 500 point bowl (white) in the middle.
A ball that misses all the fish bowls will still give 25 points.
Gold Fishin’ costs 6.8 chips to play at Dave and Buster’s. It costs 3.4 chips if you play on Half-off Wednesday.
The Gold Fishin’ jackpot is 500 tickets at Dave and Buster’s.
The score to beat in order to win the jackpot bonus starts at 1010. This is also the minimum and will never be below 1010. This resets every morning that the Gold Fishin’ arcade machine is turned on.
2. Get as Few Points Above the Bonus Score as Possible
When the jackpot bonus is won, the score to beat will increase by 100 points over whatever was just scored to win the bonus. For example, if you play and win the bonus with a score of 1500, the next time you play, the score to beat will be 1600.
Every time Gold Fishin’ is played and the bonus is not won, the score to beat will decrease by 5 points but not go below 1010.
Intentionally roll the balls down the ramp to miss the fish bowls when you know you beat the bonus score so that you can keep the score lower for the next game. This helps keep the required score for the next game lower so it will be easier to win back to back jackpots.
Remember that missing still scores 25 points. Let’s say you have 900 points with 5 balls left to throw and the required score is 1010. You can roll all these balls down in order to miss them because 5 x 25 = 125. This will give you 1025 points and keep your score at its lowest possible. The next required score to beat in this example would be 1125, which is another beatable score.
The Gold Fishin’ jackpot win video below in the Throwing Strategy tip section shows a player missing on purpose at the end to get the lowest score over the jackpot.
3. Only Play When There is a Low Bonus Score
Another simple tip is to check the Gold Fishin’ machines at your local arcade to see what this required bonus score is. If the score to beat is too high then don’t play. Come back another time when the score is lower.
If it is in the morning right when the arcade opens then it should be at the 1010 point score if no one else played yet that day. At the end of busy days it can be 1500+ points.
The scores that are achievable to get the bonus are from 1010-1300. Any score above 1300 will be very difficult to win without getting extremely lucky.
Also remember that some arcades will have two Gold Fishin’ machines next to each other. So play the side that has the lowest required score to win.
4. Use the Best Throwing Strategy
There are lots of different strategies for how to throw in Gold Fishin’. Some players insist that throwing all the balls at once is the best way to score. You can try this but this way of throwing relies on a lot of luck. You can win the jackpot by throwing all the balls, but I think using a more strategic throw will give you a better chance to win.
The throwing strategy that I like is where you bounce the ping pong balls one at a time. Softly bounce a ball on the platform in front of all the fish bowls. Aim for landing right into the center 500 point bowl.
Even if it does not go directly into the middle fish bowl, the ball will bounce closer to the center giving it better odds to stay in play and possibly into another bowl.
The really important part of this bounce throw (or any throw) is to make the balls fall with as little speed as possible by throwing softly. This helps because the balls won’t bounce as hard off the fish bowls and out of the play area.
Watch the video below to help visualize this throwing strategy on Gold Fishin’ at Dave and Buster’s.
5. Improve Your Skills
Gold Fishin’ is a game that takes a lot of luck. The balls bounce uncontrollably and it is very difficult to score directly into the fishing bowl you are aiming at.
That being said, you can still increase your chances of winning the jackpot by practicing. Play Gold Fishin’ a lot in order to get better at throwing. Figure out the kind of throw that works best for you.
With enough practice you should be able to score directly into the fishing bowl you aim at with a small amount of consistency. This hard work that you put in will give you enough skill to score enough points to win when the bonus score is low.
Like I mentioned before, a bonus score of 1300 or higher is difficult even if you practice. It will take both skill and a ton of luck to win that many points.
Gold Fishin’ Hacks
Sometimes the fault sensor will be turned off, allowing players to lean way in or crawl up the machine to drop balls into the fishing bowls.
Do not do this. This hurts the game for other players who play legitimately by driving up the jackpot score. If you see someone doing this then let an arcade tech or manager know so that they can turn the sensor back on.
Gold Fishin’ Arcade Game Review Score
Score is out of 10, with 1 being all luck to win and 10 being all skill.
Skill Rating: 5
Gold Fishin’ seems like it would take a lot more skill than it actually does. It plays kind of like a carnival game where it is trickier to win than you think.
The fish bowls have small holes that just barely fit the ping pong balls in. They are also clear and made of a hard plastic. This causes the ping pong balls to bounce uncontrollably around the arcade machine making it unpredictable where it will end up. You really have to be quite lucky to score into a fish bowl at this game.
You can help your chances by using the tips mentioned above and practicing. Shooting directly into the hole you are aiming at is possible, although very difficult even for the most skilled players.
Because of the random bouncing and difficulty of scoring into the bowls, this arcade game cannot be beat very consistently.
Fun Rating: 6
The unexpected outcomes of where the ping pong balls will end up can make Gold Fishin’ an exciting arcade game to play. The anticipation of seeing if they will land in a fish bowl after bouncing a few times (or what seems like a few hundred times), gets me to play Gold Fishin’ at least once or twice when I visit the arcade.
It is also a very beginner friendly game, as most people will be familiar with beer pong. Just throw the ping pong balls and hope for the best!
I hope you enjoyed this Gold Fishin’ guide. Maybe it will give you the advantage you need to finally win the jackpot.
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