How to "hack" Tap Fish 2 without jailbreaking

Have you ever been bored out of your life by playing Tap Fish 2, because you couldn't buy all the cool fish? You knew how but you didn't know how to jailbreak? This instructable shows a easy way to "hack" Tap Fish 2 without jailbreaking your iDevice. Basic HTML or XML understanding is recommended, but anyone can do this. Just saying, I do not own any software that is spoken on this (including Tap Fish 2 itself) if this is copyright, you may delete this.

Step 1: Get the program

You will need to download a program called iExplorer. It detects your iDevice as a external hard drive (like a usb plug) and lets you modify the system files! WARNING: Whatever you do with this program is at your own risk. Don't come crying to me saying "I messed up my iPhone!!". You can get this program at http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/

Comments

[vsandusky]

I have purchased iexplorer and followed all of the instructions. The xml files are empty when I open them in WordPad and Notebook. Properties show the size of them is 0. I tried dragging, then exporting to the desktop. Same thing each time.

When all else failed, I tried exporting the whole folder to a separate directory folder on my pc. iexplorer stalled on the localstore_en.xml file. After 20 minutes I closed out iexplorer. Have tried on both IPad (Next Gen) and Iphone 3GS with the same results.

Is there something else I need to do in order to make this work? I hate to think I spent $34.99 to get "free" fish bucks and have nothing to show for it.

[VoltageMANIAC]

iexplorer when I made this only the free version existed, and I wouldn't expect anybody would pay ANYTHING using this tutorial. First of all, this doesn't work anymore, and second of all you wasted your money. Sorry.

[KrazzyEyezz]

I can get you unlimited bucks, coins, exp points and level. :-) Diff method

[samara_13]

How did you do it?

[samara_13]

Hey so i downloaded iExplorer, everything, dragged the 2 files to my desktop, opened them in wordpad and when i done this, there is no data in any of the files.. Am i doing something wrong? :/

[agregory fletcher]

Has anyone figured out how to hack this after the recent update to the app? I attempted it with the localstore_en.xml and the localstore_ja.xml, and nothing changed in the app itself. Any new info would be great! Wonderful tutorial btw, easiest by far!

[drchrisfr]

Thankyou voltageMANIAC for your fantastic ideas and step by step instructions.

I have only just yesterday read your instructions being new to tap fish 2. I am wondering if a recent Tap Fish 2 update might have changed things a bit. There no longer appears to be a localstore.xml although there is a localstore_en.xml (english) and localstore-ja.xml (Japanese I guess) I did a search on the other directories as well and it does not exist. Changes in the English and Japanese xml files make no difference to the game so I am wondering if the fish prices etc are now downloaded from the server everytime one opens the game or if they are saved elsewhere as soon as one opens the game for the first time.

Have you noticed any change?

Kind Regards

drchrisfr

[aschmidt11]

I noticed the same thing. I had used this hack before the update and noticed that the update changed my prices back so tried to re-hack it using this method. It didn't work. I'd love to know how to work around this because now I have very low coins/bucks.

[jabsjr]

I tried this a few days ago on a 3GS. I wasn't greedy and went with the 100 instead of the 9's on the yellow snappers - I'm lvl 43 and really just need the bucks not coins. It seemed to work perfect, however as I finished filling the 2nd tank I realized I was also getting a -99 exp with each one I bought! I haven't seen anything mentioned about experience, is this supposed to happen? Also yesterday I noticed I now have 2 sets of additional backgrounds BUT half of them are different from the originals. Any thoughts or ideas as to what's happening. Thanks!

[VoltageMANIAC]

I honestly don't know. But it doesn't really affect your gameplay

[just-me-again]

I have noticed the same thing. Now after the update this week I had further problems. I had to reset the game (because I didn't like one of the fish I got in the spinning wheel) and I lost 4,000 bucks. And everything I had done in the game throughout the day. And the fish I had bred. Crazy.
I also got the different backgrounds. That was nice.
Anyone has been experiencing problems after the update this week?

[Kzettler]

my beginner fish are gone completely I tried to restore still gone damn!

[VoltageMANIAC]

Why are they gone? I guess you have to start over but with this instructable you can start over easily

[jpbredman]

Tip: instead of copying and pasting one file to the other - just go to each separately and make the same few changes.
Reason: when I did the copy and paste thing - for some reason my store would show (in decorations menu) "tank basics2", "castles2", etc. Not sure exactly why this happened, but when I would try to purchase something from any "2" menu - it would say "cannot connect to server". It didn't cause any other problems except making the store menu all crowded w/useless menu choices - but I started from step 1 and just made the changes (without copying and pasting) and : problem solved.
Hope this helps.

[bronson11]

Worked on windows 7 for me! iDevice was being sort of buggy and youd have to let it think after dragging the files for a minute or it would crash.

[sammers1021]

im going through this step by step but its still not working what do i do

[VoltageMANIAC]

I know this step is a little hard. That is why it is helpful to know at least the basics of html

[bryanbreon]

when i try to open com.gameviewstudios.fishlifeplus, i get an error message saying the ios devise appears to have reached its limit of connecting to 5 app directories, please reconnect the devise or restart iexplorer to access this directory. it does it every time please help me....

[VoltageMANIAC]

This kept happening to me when i downloaded iExplorer. I just quit out of it and tried again. Remember, don't open any other directories. Well, you can, but that is the main problem

[jpbredman]

Worked for me - definitely AWESOME!

[Kazzie333]

Brilliant stuff. Works like a dream. Thanks muchness! x

[trentthomason]

It worked Great! Also works for Tap Fish Seasons! Thank You!

[AKRefugee]

Worked precisely as stated.
Good job my friend. Thanks

[baybeegrrl1004]

For some reason, I am unable to drag the files back into iExplorer. It just brings up a little sign like a no smoking sign. Any ideas how to fix this? I'm using windows 7.

[VoltageMANIAC]

May you please take a screenshot? I don't fully understand...

[baybeegrrl1004]

I can't get a screenshot. Basically, I can do everything just as you said except for being able to drag the files back into iExplorer. I even tried a jpg file as a test. I can transfer files from iExplorer to my pc but I can't get files from my pc to iExplorer.

[VoltageMANIAC]

I am sorry but I can't find the problem. Please e-mail [e-mail] your problem and they will probably send you something back

[timothymh]

Sounds like you may be having permissions issues. Look around for anything having to do with permissions. I can't give you detailed help, as I'm unfamiliar with Windows as well as iExplorer, but that's just a tip.

(I assume the no-smoking-esque sign was a "no write permissions" sign. It was probably a pencil, not a cigarette.)

[VoltageMANIAC]

Oh and also, if you don't have the requirements of the iTunes, you can just update them easily :)

[VoltageMANIAC]

I'm not exactly entirely sure whats going on with you. Just look what I say in this comment. If you say yes to everything, I will go into further research about your problem. If no, I'm sorry that you can't do this awesome instructable.
If you are using a Mac:
You have Mac OSX 10.5, or later
You have iTunes 8 or later
If you are using a Windows Computer:
You have Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP
You have iTunes 9 or later

[juliataylor]

Ok, so i have done all of the steps. I can get the fish bucks and the coins, at least it appears that I do. Buy why can't I actually spend them?

[VoltageMANIAC]

I posted this in the instructable: did you buy too many green and yellow snappers? If you did, you will have to restart your tap fish game and do this process again. To restart your tap fish game, hold down your finger on the game icon long enough when every app starts shaking. Press the X on the tap fish game and say yes or OK. Then go into the appstore and get it again.

[juliataylor]

I had only bought 1 of each. I figured maybe I put too many 9's in the field anyhow. So I restarted my game and changed the 9999999's to only 10. Its working like a charm now! Thanks.
Also I saw a comment about restarting the game by deleting the icon, It is much easier to restart the game by tapping on the menu button (the arrow on the screen), then tapping "about tapfish 2" on the bottom right corner. From there you will see a "restore game button". Doing it this way, you won't lose any progress you have already made in the game. I hope this helps someone.
Thank you!!!

[VoltageMANIAC]

I will put that in this instructable. Thanks!