Fishing Games Malaysia: How Tembak Ikan Works, Cannon Bets, Multipliers & Best Lobbies (2026)

What is a fishing game (tembak ikan)?

A fishing game is an arcade shooter dressed up as a casino game. Schools of fish, turtles, crabs, mermaids and the occasional golden dragon swim across an underwater screen. You control a cannon at the edge of the table, tap where you want to shoot, and every bullet you fire costs money. Catch a fish and you win its value, written as a multiplier of your bet per shot. Miss, or hit a fish that doesn’t fall, and that bullet is gone.

It feels like the arcade machines many of us grew up with, something happens on screen every second, and you decide when to fire instead of just pressing spin. Players call it tembak ikan or fish shooting, and most casinos give it a tab of its own next to slots and live casino.

A few things set it apart from a slot:

• A shared table. Most titles seat up to four players around one screen. Everyone shoots at the same fish, but each player pays for their own bullets and collects their own catches.
• You set the pace. A slot spin takes a few seconds. In a fishing game you can fire as fast as you tap, or switch on auto-fire and let the cannon run.
• Every bullet is a bet. This is the line to remember. A RM0.50 cannon firing 300 bullets has placed RM150 of bets, whether or not it felt like “one session”.
• Targets with different prices. Small fish pay small multipliers and fall often. Big fish and bosses pay far more and fall rarely.

Fishing games come from the same studios Malaysians already know from slots: JILI, Fa Chai, Spadegaming, JDB, CQ9, KA Gaming, V-Power and others. Mega888 and 918Kiss carry their own fishing games inside the apps too (our Mega888 guide and 918Kiss guide cover those).

Cannon level: your bet per shot

Before the first bullet, you choose your cannon level (some titles call it gun power or bet level). This is your stake per shot. Raise it and every bullet costs more, and every catch pays more by the same factor: a 10x fish pays RM1 on a RM0.10 cannon and RM10 on a RM1 cannon. The odds of catching the fish don’t improve because you paid more per bullet; only the size of the win changes.

Rooms and table minimums

Most fishing titles split players into rooms (beginner, intermediate, VIP, or a similar ladder). Each room has its own range of cannon levels, so the cheapest room lets you fire very small bullets and the VIP room starts higher. The exact ranges differ by title and by casino, so read the bet range on the room screen before you sit down rather than assuming.

The maths of a session is simple multiplication: bet per shot × number of shots = total wagered. Here is what that looks like at a few example cannon levels:

The 1,000-shot column is the one people underestimate. A thousand bullets sounds like a lot, but with auto-fire running it can go in minutes (more on that below).

Durian tip: Pick your cannon level from your budget, not from the room you like the look of. Decide how many shots you want to enjoy (300 is a relaxed session) and divide: RM60 ÷ 300 shots = RM0.20 a shot. Can go up later if you’re having fun and still within budget.

Fish multipliers, bosses and special weapons

Every target on the screen has a price, shown on the game’s paytable as a multiplier of your bet per shot. The pattern is the same in almost every title:

The exact multipliers differ from game to game, so open the paytable (usually an “i” or a menu icon) and see what each fish is worth before you start shooting. A few examples from JILI’s own game pages:

• Royal Fishing is billed by JILI as an entry-level fishing machine. Firing builds up energy that can release a full-screen attack, and catching the boss, the Money Dragon King, can trigger a multiplier wheel of up to 350x.
• Mega Fishing lists a maximum win of 950x, with a Special Octopus Wheel plus torpedoes and a railgun for the big sea monsters.
• Jackpot Fishing adds a Jackpot and Jackpot Wheel, and its high-value fish can land with a random extra 5x multiplier when caught.

Special weapons

This is where titles really differ. Depending on the game you might get bombs that blow up everything in a radius, lasers or railguns that cut a line across the screen, drills that bounce around hitting fish, or chain lightning that jumps from fish to fish. Some are earned by catching a special creature, some charge up as you fire, and some you trigger yourself. They look spectacular, and they’re how the bigger wins usually happen, but they don’t change the game’s long-run return. The maths has already priced them in.

How the payout really works: hit chance and RTP

Here’s the part most players get wrong. Every bullet that hits a fish has a chance of catching it, and that chance is set by the game’s random number generator, not by how many times you’ve already hit the same fish or how good your aim is. Your aim decides which fish you’re shooting at. The game decides whether the hit counts.

Like slots, fishing games are built around an RTP (return to player): the share of all bets the game pays back over a very long run. If you want the full explanation of RTP and RNG, our RTP and RNG guide covers it. For fishing, the useful way to think about it is:

Catch chance per shot ≈ RTP ÷ the fish’s multiplier (a simplified model).

We’ll use an illustrative RTP of 96% to show the idea, not a published figure for any title:

Real games are more complicated (special weapons, wheels and shared tables all change the picture), but the lesson holds. Shooting big fish doesn’t give you a better deal than shooting small fish. It gives you the same long-run cost with much bigger swings, a bit like moving from a low-volatility slot to a high-volatility one. Our slot volatility guide explains why that matters for your budget.

So what’s the actual RTP of a JILI fishing game? JILI’s public game pages don’t list one for its fishing titles, and casinos can run different versions. Check the game’s info screen before you play, and if it isn’t shown, ask the casino’s live chat. Be wary of anyone selling “aim tricks”, patterns, scripts or the “best time to play”: none of it moves the maths.

Worked example: 300 shots in ringgit

Let’s put real numbers on a session. You sit down with RM150, pick a RM0.50 cannon and plan to fire 300 shots.

1. Total wagered: 300 × RM0.50 = RM150. Your whole budget goes through the cannon once.
2. Expected return at the illustrative 96% RTP: RM150 × 0.96 = RM144.
3. Average cost of the session: RM150 − RM144 = RM6, or 4% of what you fired.

Six ringgit for 300 shots sounds cheap, and on average it is. But a real session swings far more than RM6 either way. One boss catch at 300x on a RM0.50 cannon pays RM150 in a single hit, while a run of misses can drain RM50 before anything big falls. And the RM6 only holds if you stop at 300 shots. If you keep recycling your wins back into the cannon, the total you fire keeps growing, and so does the expected cost:

Now drop the cannon to RM0.10 for the same 300 shots: RM30 wagered, RM1.20 average cost, and your RM150 budget can cover five sessions instead of one. Same game, same fun, much longer ride. That’s the single biggest lever you control in a fishing game.

What a bonus turnover looks like in shots

Bonus turnover (wagering) is counted in ringgit bet, so it’s worth translating it into bullets:

• AW8 Pro’s 140% starter: a RM20 deposit gets a RM28 bonus at 15x, which our AW8 free credit guide works out as RM720 of slot and fishing bets. At RM0.50 a shot that’s 1,440 shots.
• BK8’s 100% welcome: BK8’s own example is RM100 in, RM100 bonus, RM2,400 of turnover (12 × RM200). At RM0.50 a shot: 4,800 shots.
• Maxim88’s 288% welcome: RM100 in, RM288 bonus, RM388 × 28 = RM10,864 of bets. At RM0.50 a shot: 21,728 shots.

Same “fishing counts” promise, very different amounts of shooting. Our turnover guide shows how to run this maths for any bonus.

Auto-fire and lock-target: handy but hungry

Almost every modern fishing game has two buttons that change how you play:

• Auto-fire keeps the cannon shooting without you tapping. Your thumb gets a rest, and you can focus on steering.
• Lock-target (or auto-aim) fixes your bullets on one chosen fish, so every shot goes at the big target until it’s caught or swims away.

Both are useful, and both have the same side effect: more shots per minute. Fire rates differ by title, so take an example of two shots a second. That’s 120 shots a minute, so a 300-shot session lasts about two and a half minutes, and an hour of non-stop auto-fire would be 7,200 shots. At RM0.50 a shot, that’s RM3,600 wagered an hour, with an average cost of about RM144 at a 96% RTP. Manual tapping is slower and naturally gives your budget room to breathe.

Lock-target has its own trap. Locking onto a boss feels like “investing” in it, but every bullet is still a separate bet with the same catch chance. A boss that has soaked up 80 of your shots is no closer to falling than it was on the first one. If it swims off the screen, those bullets are gone lah.

Durian tip: Use auto-fire in short bursts, not as a default. Set a stop point before you start (for example “stop at 300 shots or when the balance hits half”), and check your balance every couple of minutes. Steady pace, longer session, same game.

Fishing and bonuses: which welcome deals count

This is where fishing players lose money without noticing. Many welcome bonuses count fishing just like slots, some count only certain studios, and some leave fishing out completely. If you shoot fish on a bonus that doesn’t count them, your turnover doesn’t move, or the bonus winnings get removed. Here’s what our Malaysian reviews say:

Got fishing in the terms or not? Check before you claim. BK8’s bigger 288% offer can’t be played on JILI, Fa Chai, CQ9, Dragoon Soft or YesGetRich, so fishing fans should take the 100% instead. And if you mainly shoot fish inside Mega888 or 918Kiss, the kiosk welcomes are your route: Maxim88’s 100% Mega888 / 918Kiss up to RM200 (8x winover) and BK8’s 150% Mega & Kiss up to RM300 (8x winover) both cover the apps’ slots and fishing games.

After the welcome bonus, rebates are the quiet winner for regular shooters. BK8’s instant rebate pays 0.5% on fishing for regular members, every hour, with no turnover and no cap. On RM1,500 of fishing bets that’s RM7.50 back, win or lose. GOD55’s instant rebate, on the other hand, doesn’t pay on fishing bets. For every clause that can void a bonus, read our bonus terms decoded guide.

Our Malaysian casinos for fishing, compared

All eight casinos we review for Malaysia have fishing games. Here’s what each lobby looked like when we tested, using only what our reviews recorded:

Tournaments are a bonus for regulars: Maxim88 runs a Spadegaming Play & Win + Fishing Frenzy leaderboard and BK8 a Spadegaming tournament, each with a RM2,282,800 prize pool covering slots and fishing. Want the lobbies ranked side by side? Our fishing casinos list does exactly that.

Choosing a title: start with JILI

JILI is the Southeast Asian favourite for fishing, and every one of our Malaysian casinos with a provider list for fishing carries it. Its catalogue includes Jackpot Fishing, Mega Fishing, Royal Fishing, Dinosaur Tycoon, Boom Legend, Happy Fishing, Dragon Fortune and All-star Fishing. The same studio makes slots like Super Ace and Fortune Gems, and our JILI provider page lists what else it does. Fa Chai, Spadegaming and JDB are the next names to try.

Your first session, step by step:

1. Pick a casino whose bonus counts fishing (or skip the bonus and play with cash plus rebate).
2. Top up a small amount by Touch ’n Go or DuitNow, and move it to the right game wallet with the promo code if you’re claiming a bonus.
3. Open a beginner-friendly title, such as JILI’s Royal Fishing, in the cheapest room.
4. Read the paytable and info screen: fish values, special weapons and, if shown, the RTP.
5. Set your cannon level from your budget (budget ÷ planned shots).
6. Fire manually for the first few minutes to learn the pace before you try auto-fire.
7. Stop at your shot count or loss limit, and move any winnings back to your main wallet.

Where to play fishing games in Malaysia

• Maxim88: the best welcome for shooters. The 288% slots and fishing bonus turns RM100 into RM388 (28x deposit + bonus, 30 days), there are fishing games from nine studios, a weekly Fishing Frenzy leaderboard, and an instant rebate every hour with no turnover. Rated 3.5/5 durians.
• BK8: the lightest turnover. The 100% welcome up to RM300 at 12x deposit + bonus includes fishing, the lobby has eight fishing studios, and the 0.5% instant rebate on fishing lands every hour with no turnover and no cap. Rated 3.5/5 durians.
• AW8: the biggest lobby, with 196 fishing games on AW8 Pro and a cheap start: RM28 on a RM20 deposit at 15x, valid on slots and fishing. It scores 2/5 durians on trust, so keep your top-ups small and withdraw wins as you go.

Fishing games are best enjoyed as a short, budgeted session: choose your cannon level before you start, stop when you hit your limit, and see our responsible gambling page if it stops being fun.

21+ only. Play responsibly.