PEARLS & ECONOMY
Pearls (✦) are the reef's only currency. You earn them by merging and by netting the Spikefish; you spend them in the Reef Shop.
Earning pearls
- Merges pay
(tier+1)(tier+2)scaled by the current combo multiplier (up to ×3). Higher merges pay far more. - Mutation prizes — when a mutation appears (by merge or egg hatch), it pays a bonus scaled by rarity × tier. Golden is the crown jewel. See Mutations & Traits.
- Netting the Spikefish pays a flat bounty and removes the threat.
- Offline / boost rewards via the Reef Shop's rewarded options.
The Reef Shop
Opening the shop pauses the reef (a gameplay break). Items include:
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Egg | Drops a fresh mid-tier fish into the water (on a cooldown). |
| Rare / Abyssal Egg | A higher-tier fish with a boosted mutation chance. |
| Tank capacity | +2 max fish per level, up to the cap. |
| Pearl Rush | Rewarded-video booster: ×2 pearl rate for 2 minutes. |
| Mutation Surge | Rewarded: temporarily triples mutation chance. |
Eggs sink and hatch on the sea floor with a shell-crack and bubble burst, then the fish rises out. Buying an egg plays its own drop cue.
Rewarded ads (Full launch)
Boosts are optional bonuses, never required to progress, and each has a non-ad alternative (spend pearls). On ad error / no-fill / AdBlock the reward is not granted via the ad — the game continues, and where the caller offered a pearl price the player can afford, pearls are taken instead so no one is penalized. See Shipping & Compliance.
Lifetime vs reef
A reef is one run to the Cosmic Whale. Resetting wipes the reef but preserves lifetime progress: the Abyssal Codex (species × traits discovered), achievements, and cumulative stats (merges, mutants, best bloodline generation, pearls earned, nets).