The Compass and the Spyglass

The Compass and the Spyglass are two tools that help you find your way, your treasure and the fish. Each is a one-time purchase with coins. Once you own one, it’s always with you, and it doesn’t take up a space in your inventory.

Both are used with your free hand, the one without the rod. Only you see them; other captains don’t.

The Compass

A brass pocket compass.

Where to buy it

On the shelves of the Bait Shop: pick it up to look at it, then pull its price tag with your other hand. You can also buy it from GEAR › TOOLS in the captain’s log while you’re standing in the Bait Shop.

Using it

• Take it out: put your free hand at your hip and squeeze grip.
• Put it away: press A (or X) on that hand, or put it back at your hip and squeeze. It also puts itself away when a fish bites, because you need that hand for the reel.

You can keep it out while you cast and wait for a bite, with the rod in your other hand.

Reading it

• North: the needle always points north, however you tilt the compass.
• Heading: the open lid shows which way you’re facing, in large letters.
• Treasure: gold marks with a diamond, on the outer ring, point toward treasure you can claim: washed-up chests, drifting crates, hidden chests and the dig spot from a message bottle you’ve read.
• Other captains: teal marks with a hollow ring, on the inner ring, point toward the other captains nearby.

The marks point roughly, not exactly. Nearer things draw thicker marks, and it shows only the few nearest of each kind. When you’re very close, a mark stops pointing and its whole ring pulses: it’s right around here.

The Compass only gives information. It never changes where you can fish, what bites or what you can claim, and it only shows your own treasure, never other captains’.

The Spyglass

A brass telescope.

Where to buy it

At the harbor map board, the small roofed kiosk on the plaza, through GEAR › TOOLS in the captain’s log or the chart’s SPYGLASS button while you’re near the board.

What it does

• Always on: once you own it, you can see fish signs on the water from farther away.
• Raise it: lift your free hand to your eye and squeeze grip. The spyglass slides out, the edges of your view darken into its round eyepiece, and you can see fish signs even farther off. A label floats over every hotspot ahead, naming its sign and how far away it is.
• Lower it: let go of grip and it folds away.

The Spyglass and the Compass use the same hand, so you can’t raise the Spyglass while the Compass is out.

See Weather and fish signs for what each sign means.