The rule book

A game about carp fishing. You are an angler, and the keeper runs every water in the game: the keeper digs the lakes, sets what swims in them and decides which pass each one takes. You take your rods to any open water your pass allows, buy a ticket, and fish it for the biggest carp you can land. Fishing earns you catches, experience, a reputation and a place on the world's boards.

A carp is a big, slow-growing freshwater fish. Anglers measure them in pounds (lb) and ounces (oz): a "double" is 10 lb or more, a "twenty" 20 lb, a "thirty" 30 lb, and a "forty" or a "fifty" is the fish of a lifetime. Every fish in the game has a name once it has been caught, a weight, an age and a history, so the big ones become famous. Weight is the score: a fish earns experience by its weight to the power of one and a half, and the records and the boards are all by weight.

Every water runs on its own clock: one fishery day passes every real hour, whether you are playing or not. Between your visits the fish feed, grow, spawn, are caught and grow old — up to 30 fishery days at a time — so the water you come back to has moved on. A fishing session is different: it runs in front of you, minute by minute, and the clock on screen is the session's clock.

£1,000 for tickets and tackle, a starter set of rods, and an angler with beginner skills. The first thing the game asks you to do is sign the licence; then Find water lists every open water in the game, across 11 regions of the world, each with its own climate and the size of fish it can grow.

Yes. Carp Mania is free to play, with no adverts and nothing to buy. You sign in with a Google account, and one account is one angler with one line of fishermen.

A swim is a spot on the bank you fish from; the peg is the marker on that spot. The game uses the two words for the same thing. A swim has water in front of it, and what is in that water — an island, a gravel bar, snags, reeds, lily pads, deep or shallow — is what makes one swim better than another on the day.

The rig is the last few inches of the setup: the hook and the short length of line it is tied to, arranged so the bait sits right and the hook takes hold when a fish picks it up. The lead is a weight that holds it all on the bottom and helps the cast. Tubing is a soft sleeve over the line near the rig that stops it tangling and hides it. Different rigs suit different bottoms — some sit up over silt and weed, others lie flat on clean gravel.

Bait is what goes on the hook. Boilies are the round, boiled baits carp anglers use most; a "pop-up" floats just off the bottom; a "wafter" hangs balanced; particles are seeds and pulses like hemp and sweetcorn. Carp learn what the water is fed on, so the bait a fishery has been feeding is the one its fish trust.

A bite is a fish picking up the bait. A run is the fish bolting with it — the line pours off the reel and the bite alarm sounds. The strike is you lifting the rod to set the hook, and in the game you have a few seconds to do it once the alarm goes.

Once the hook is in, the fish pulls hard and you cannot simply wind it in. Playing it is tiring it out: you reel when it lets you and give line when it runs. Keep the line too tight and it snaps; leave it too slack and the hook falls out. When the fish is beaten you net it and it goes on the mat — the padded cradle where it is weighed, photographed and put back.

Your PB is your personal best — the heaviest carp you have ever landed. A lake record is the heaviest fish ever caught from that water; the region record and the world record are the same idea at larger scale. All of them are held by a named angler until somebody beats them.

Strains of carp, told apart by their scales. A common is fully scaled, a mirror has a scattering of big shiny scales, a linear has one neat row along its flank, a leather has almost none, and a ghost is pale and metallic. They are the same fish underneath; the strain is what a fish looks like and part of what makes it worth having.

The skill of reading a water: knowing where the fish will be from the weather, the season, the features and the signs on the surface. In the game it is one of your four skills, and as it grows you get longer to strike and you start to see where fish have shown.

A day ticket is the price of fishing a water for a set number of hours. A pass is the keeper's leave to fish the waters that ask for one — gold, silver or bronze, each opening more of the levelled lakes than the one below it. The keeper is the person who runs every water in the game: digs the lakes, sets the stock, prices the tickets and hands out the passes.

Open a water from Find water and buy a ticket at the office. Then pick a swim by clicking a peg on the bank or its name in the list, set up your rods, and cast. The screen tells you what to do next at every step.

Yes. Every water's page shows who is on the bank right now — each angler with a live ticket, when they arrived and how many fish they have had — so you can see how busy it is and who you would be fishing alongside.

Day: Seven till seven. The tail of the morning; the evening is given away. Night: Seven in the evening till seven in the morning. Into the dark and out the other side. 24 hours: A full day and night. Both magic windows are in it. Multi-day: Several 24-hour sits on one ticket, taken one after another. A multi-day ticket runs from 2 to 7 days. The keeper sets each water's prices, and a day ticket is priced per 12 hours.

The keeper gives some waters a level, and a levelled water sells a ticket only to an angler holding a pass good for it: Gold opens every lake, at any time; Silver opens the lakes of level 2 and below; Bronze opens the lakes of level 3 and below. A pass is the keeper's to give and to take back, and it never runs out on its own. The water's page says which pass it takes, and My angler shows the passes you hold.

Up to 3. Each rod has 8 parts to choose — rod, reel, line, hook, rig, lead, tubing, bait — and you can copy one rod's setup to the others. Your setup is remembered for next time.

On the map, click or tap the water once for each rod. In 3D, drag down from the lower half of the water and let go: the further you pull, the further it goes, and pulling to one side aims. A pull too gentle does not cast. A drag that is not a pull looks around, and two fingers pinch to zoom. The spot you land on decides the bottom (gravel, silt, clay, rock), the depth and the feature you are on, and the rod card tells you which. Island margins, gravel bars, reed lines and lily pads all fish better than open water, and every named carp has a favourite spot. A snag is different: it bites at 40% of the rate of open water, but the bigger fish have learned it is the safest place to be, so a bite there is more likely to be one of them. An island blocks a cast, so pick a swim with a clear line to the water you want.

Bites come at dawn and dusk more than the middle of the day, and the size of what bites follows the clock too. The small hours — quiet, but the fish that feed, feed hard (0:00 to 5:00). First light — the best five hours in the game (5:00 to 10:00). The afternoon — the slowest hours on the water (10:00 to 16:00). Into the dark — the other eight (16:00 to midnight). The weather on the day and the season shift it: summer bites come fast in the shallows, winter fish sit in the deepest water.

Days in a row with a ticket bought. Day one is an ordinary day; every consecutive day after it adds 10% to how often the fish bite, up to day 5 (×1.4). Miss a day and it starts again from one. The pill in the clock strip shows the day you are on.

Strike — press the button or Enter — within 4 seconds, and up to 1.5 seconds longer as your watercraft rises. Miss it and the fish is gone. Some bites are nuisance fish, not carp: strike anyway and see.

Hold Reel (or the Space bar) while the fish tires and watch the tension bar. It warns you a beat before the fish runs: let go and let it take line, then reel again. Too tight snaps the line; too slack and the hook falls out. When the fish is beaten it goes on the mat, is weighed and photographed, and any personal best or record is called there and then.

Yes. Move swim brings the rods in and walks you round; it costs half an hour of the session. Pick the new peg on the bank or from the list, then tackle up and cast again.

Fish showing. From watercraft 50 you see where fish have crashed out this hour — up to 3 at a time — and a bait cast there is on the fish. Below that skill you hear them but cannot see where.

Click a peg to choose a swim; click the water on the map, or drag down from it in 3D, to cast the next rod; 1, 2 and 3 reel a rod in; M moves swim; Enter strikes; hold Space to reel and release it to give line on a run.

The tackle shop sells rods, reels, line, hooks, rigs, leads, tubing and bait by brand, and every fishery with a shop sells at its own counter too. What you own is in My tackle box, by kind.

Brands come in 4 tiers — Starter from level 0, Club from level 10, Specialist from level 25, Custom from level 45. A brand will not sell its best kit to an angler with no record; your level opens the shelves. Custom-tier kit is only sold at a water whose own shop has earned it.

Line, hooks, rigs, leads, tubing and bait are used up as you fish and are bought by the pack. Rods and reels last until one snaps. Bait can spoil if it sits too long. The tackle box shows how much of each you have left, and the tackle-up screen warns when a rod is short of something.

Match the water. Clear line hides in clear water and coloured line in coloured water; matt hooks show less than shiny ones; a rig that sits up suits silt and weed, and a flat rig suits clean gravel. A rod that lands up to 35 lb will not land a forty. The tackle-up screen scores each rod against the water once your craft reaches the readout threshold — before that, fish it by feel.

A 12 ft rod with an ordinary carp reel throws about 180 ft (60 yards). A longer rod and a bigger reel throw further — a 13 ft rod on a big pit reel reaches about 282 ft — and a shorter rod, a small reel or a chod rig cost you distance. While a rod is waiting to be cast, a dashed ring on the water shows how far it will reach from your peg; click beyond it and the bait lands short, on the ring.

Every rod range has its own blank, and the blank is how the rod fights: how early it warns you a run is coming (a Mortlake gives you 0.65 s, a Kestrel Carbon 0.3), how much slack or strain it forgives before the hook pulls or the line goes, and how steadily it holds. Through actions bend to the butt and cast a little shorter; fast tapers cast further. Full duplon handles widen the band again. A free-spool reel winds faster, so the fight is yours sooner; a tournament big pit throws furthest of anything on sale and winds slowest. Every rod and reel in the shop shows these as reach, landing power, forgiveness and retrieve, and the name plate shows the warning and the band at your level.

The one the water has been fed on. Each water is fed on boilies, pellets, particles and more, and the fish trust what they are used to. Bait brands differ in how much fish like them; the shop tells you.

A brand backing an angler: the whole of its tier open to them with 40% off everything for a fishery year, or brand credit to spend at that shelf. Sponsorships and credit were won on the bounties the game used to run; anyone still holding one keeps it until it runs out.

A one-of-one piece of kit a brand built by hand — better than anything on sale, with a number and the brand's name on it. They were the prizes on the bounties the game used to run; the Hall of Fame lists who holds the ones that exist, and a prototype that snaps is struck from the board.

Your angler name — one word, 3 to 24 letters and numbers, and nobody else's. You start as your first name (numbered if someone got there first) and can change it on My angler; the new name follows you onto every catch, record and piece of news. The heir who takes the rods when a fisherman retires gets a name of the same kind.

Experience, earned and never lost. Every fish you land is worth its weight in pounds to the power of 1.5 — a thirty is about five twenties — doubled for a personal best, and paid in full on a water you are new to and a third as much after a hundred sessions on the same one. A session is worth 20 and the first on a new water 200. Level n needs 50 × n^2.2 in all, so the levels come fast at first and slowly for ever: about 10 in the first week, 25 in a month, 40 or more in a year. The level opens the tackle tiers (club at 10, specialist at 25, custom at 45) and takes a small share of the odds of the big fish. Your four skills — line selection, rig selection, bait selection, watercraft — are separate, and still come from the fish you land.

Every fish you land raises them, and faster when the tackle suited the water: a well-hidden line teaches line selection, a rig that fitted the bottom teaches rig selection, the bait the fish wanted teaches bait selection, and finding the fish teaches watercraft. Skills never go down.

Your level dial, your biggest fish with the honours they had on the day, the records you hold right now, your awards, the one to beat above you on the world board, your money, skills and catch history, and your peg bookings. My public page is what other anglers see.

A personal best is your heaviest fish. A lake record is the heaviest ever from that water, a region record from that region, and the world record from anywhere. Each is held by the angler who set it until it is beaten, and the noticeboard tells you when yours goes. A catch card carries the honours it had on the day and whether the record still stands.

19 milestones a fisherman can reach in a lifetime — the first double, the first thirty, a hundred fish, a fish from five regions, a match won, fifty fish after dark and so on. Awards and the next one within reach are on My angler.

Because a fisherman has a lifetime. Yours starts between 20 and 30 years old and ages a year every 4 real days. From 5 years before retirement they are slowing down, and somewhere between 80 and 100 they retire. Their scrapbook — every catch, best fish and award — is kept for good, and the next fisherman in your line takes up the rods with the money and the tackle intact.

The angler directly above you on the world board by personal best, with how far behind you are and who is chasing you. Beat their best fish and you take their place.

Every open water in the game is on Find water and pinned on the globe under The world; the keeper runs them all. A water with no level is open to every ticket, and a levelled water takes a pass from the keeper. The water's page shows its stock, its best fish, its ticket prices, recent catches and who is on the bank right now.

Not yet. Carp Mania has no matches, bounties or prize pots, so no money can pass from one player to another: what you spend goes on tickets and tackle, and nothing goes to another angler. The boards are the competition — the records, the leaderboards and the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is what the game remembers: the greatest fish ever caught, the anglers who had them, the waters that grew them and the fish that have died. The leaderboards rank living anglers by personal best and by skill, for the world and for each region. Anglers lists every rod in the game; open one for their public page.

Every named fish has a dossier: its strain, weight, age and condition, where it lives, its growth, every capture with who had it and on what, whether it is famous, and how wary it is after recent captures. A fish caught often in the last ten fishery days is harder to catch.

News is the live feed of the world — big catches, records and awards as they happen, with a line to the water on the globe. The noticeboard is your own inbox: notes pinned when something happens to you, such as a record taken from you.

Because a second account could be used to feed a first one. Tackle is bought from the shops only, the fish stay in the keeper's waters, and there are no matches, bounties or prize pots between players. Everything you own, you earned in the game.

No. The game is free, there are no adverts, and there is nothing for sale.

13 or over. The terms and the privacy page say what we keep about you and why; the short version is that we keep what the game needs, we don't sell it, and you can ask for it to be deleted.

Write to consulting@yourbusiness.today. A bug, a fish that should not be where it is, a record that looks off — all of it is welcome.

Nobody buys land, digs a lake or feeds fish any more. Sign in, pick a name and an avatar, and you are on the bank within a minute with a ticket in your pocket.

Every lake in the game is the keeper's: dug, shaped, stocked and priced from the keeper's office. The keeper sets what swims in each water and how big it grows, and the stock lives on between your visits.

A lake can ask for a level, and a pass is the key to it: gold opens every lake, silver the lakes of level 2 and below, bronze level 3 and below. The keeper hands passes out and takes them back; a pass never runs out, and the ticket office honours it.

Everyone keeps their account, angler name and tackle, and starts level: £1,000, beginner skills, level 0. The catches and records of the first game were wiped, so the biggest fish is the next one landed.

A growing fish puts on 2oz every real day until it reaches the ceiling the keeper set, so the water you come back to holds bigger fish. The keeper can cull, grow or trim the stock, and a fish that dies goes to the memorial with its cause.

Lake, tour and season competitions run by the keeper, with cash and tackle prizes paid by the house, are the next thing to land.