Fishing

Ever wanted to channel your inner fisher on Oshan or Nadir? Now you can! This is a guide to fishing.

Space Fishin' 101

To start your deep space fishin' journey, head on down to the Ranch (or, depending on the map, the Hydroponics area) and look for an Aquatic Research Upload Terminal, a Fishing Supplies Vendor, and an Aquatic Research Pool (NOT a tub of water). If you don't have access, ask the AI or the Ranchers working there. If you can't find these machines mentioned, try asking around; they are all portable, so someone might have moved them to somewhere else. If they are just flat out gone, you can try kindly asking QM to order you an Angling Starter Kit, which contains all the machines mentioned.

Get yourself a Basic Fishing Rod from the Fishing Supplies Vendor. If you're a Rancher or Angler, you already start with this rod, so you don't have to get it again. If you're a Cyborg, you don't need one either, but only the Civilian module has a rod. To fish, click on the Aquatic Research Pool, and your super fancy fishing rod will take care of the rest, automatically casting and reeling in fish for you to enjoy. If you switch to your offhand or put your rod away, you will cease fishing, forcing you to cast your rod again.

You aren't limited to just the provided Aquatic Research Pool. Experiment! Try turning on the shower and fishing in the pools of water created, or cast your rod in the shower drain itself. Have you tried fishing in a bucket or a hydroponics tray yet? What about a vending machine or flower pot? Some pretty wild and exotic places in the Adventure Zones have wild and exotic fish too, so don't be afraid to explore and find out what you can fish in. There are about sixty different places in the game where you can cast your rod in, so don't shy away from places you believe won't work. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Once you've gotten your fill of fishing, you can redeem your fish for research tickets at a Aquatic Research Upload Terminal; the rarer the fish, the more tickets you get. Then, you can turn those tickets in for gear at the Fishing Supplies Vendor. Besides fun fishin' clothes, the vendor also sells better rods, for a superior fishing experience. These rods will catch better fish than an ordinary basic one and catch fish faster, because space fish are attracted to more superior rods.

Fishing Supplies Vendor

Here, you can redeem your research tickets for fishing credits and use them to buy fishing rods and angler clothing. To redeem your tickets for credits, you can either click on the Fishing Supplies Vendor with the tickets in your hand or drag and drop the tickets' sprite onto the vendor's (this is an especially handy shortcut for cyborgs.) Then click on the Fishing Supplies Vendor to access its buylist. Here is a list of what you can purchase using fishing credits.

Item	Image	Price	Description
Basic Fishing Rod		0 Fishing Credits	Basic fishing rod for basic fishing.
Advanced Fishing Rod		25 Fishing Credits	An upgraded fishing rod, able to fish in a variety of more difficult locations.
Master Fishing Rod		50 Fishing Credits	The ultimate fishing rod, capable of fishing in the most extreme circumstances.
Angler's Overalls		5 fishing credits	Don't be put off by the Examine text ("Smells fishy; It's wearer must have a keen appreciation for the piscine"); the angler's overalls actually smell quite normal. In fact, they're basically a normal jumpsuit-slot item. They don't boost your fishing abilities or anything, but they do make you look like a grizzled seadog. Starting gear for the Angler.
Fish Fear Me Cap		15 fishing credits	The ultimate angling headwear, as the vendor puts it lightly. While it may not actually boost fishing skills, it does come with a wacky procedurely-generated motto in the item name, in the general format of "[plural noun] [verb] [plural noun], [plural noun] [verb] [plural noun]", e.g. "Fish love men, women love fish". Emagging it (really!) makes it even more silly, unlocking additional verbs and allowing the hat to mention in-game mobs, items, and turfs, resulting in things like "Tables want Shitty Bill's intestineses, Integrated sponges fear fish". Comes in a random color. While it may look like a baseball cap, it can't be worn backwards.
Portable Aquarium		10 fishing credits	Basically, a box that can hold up to six fish (and only fish), greatly expanding the amount of fish you can carry. If you want to turn them in to the Aquatic Research Upload Terminal, you can simply click on the machine while holding the portable aquarium to load them all at once; you don't have to take each fish out and insert them one-by-one. The fish can stay inside it for the entire round; you don't need to worry about changing the water or whatever.
Fish Wall Mount		10 fishing credits	A "'Biggest catch' Fish Wall Mount" for proudly displaying a fish of your choice. Click on it with a fish, then click on a wall to hang the mount (putting the empty mount up first, then the fish also works.) Reverse these steps to remove the mount. To change the fish mounted, click on the mount to remove the current fish, then click on the mount with your new fish.

Aquatic Research Upload Terminal

Here, you can trade fish for research tickets which covert to fishing credits. The terminal categorizes fish into five rankings based on rarity, ranging from common to legendary. Usually, fish found in more obscure places tend to be worth more than fish found in common places, as the fish there are probably rarer.

You can use click-drag to combine multiple sets of research tickets together into one stack, much like with cash. Handy for civilian borgs who fish, since they lack the hands to manipulate research tickets manually.

Type	Image	Value
Common Research Ticket		One fishing credit
Uncommon Research Ticket		Two fishing credits
Rare Research Ticket		Three fishing credits
Epic Research Ticket		Four fishing credits
Legendary Research Ticket		Five fishing credits

Gotta catch them all!

Here is a list of fish you can catch. Most of them are based on ones found in real life, but quite a few are purely fictional, often with unusual properties. Different areas have different types of fish, and a few fish are exclusive to their own special areas. Some of the secret Adventure Zone areas are host to some truly otherworldly piscines.

Fish are all items, rather than mobs or critters, so you can stow them in your backpack or a crate without much hassle. Fish never rot or go bad, so you don't need to bring coolers or ice with you.

Internally, most fish are classified as either freshwater, (ocean) saltwater, or aquarium. Some fall outside of these categories entirely, and these are collectively called "alien" fish. This does not affect what kinds can fish can appear at a particular fishing spot. Each spot has a specific pool of potential fish, and many of them mix fish from different categories. For example, if you fish in the Seafloor of Oshan Laboratory, you can find both largemouth bass, a freshwater fish, and flounder, a saltwater fish. The categories are listed for sake of being comprehensive.

Freshwater Fish

Name	Image	Rarity	Description
Largemouth Bass		Common	A fighty freshwater fish, a good catch for a beginner angler.
Salmon		Common	A commercial saltwater fish prized for its flavor for over five thousand years.
Carp		Common	The queen of rivers. A very popular game fish, though not as revered in the USA.
Rainbow Trout		Uncommon	A highly-regarded game fish with a vivid red stripe along it.
Goldfish		Common	Stick this onto your fishing rod for a higher chance of reeling up literal goldfish. The Examine text describes it as "A commonly kept indoor aquarium fish. More clever than you might expect."
Chub		Common	The sea chub, also known as the rudderfish or the pilot fish. Wait which one is this?
Eel		Uncommon	When the jaws open wide and there's more jaws inside, that's a Moray!
Dace		Common	A surface-dwelling fish related to the carp. Became established after escaping from being used as a bait fish.
Minnow		Uncommon	One of the most common bait fish, looks like this one got away! Until you caught it.
Pike		Rare	Named after the long and pointy weapon of war, the Pike features in the Finnish Kalevala, where it's jawbown in turned in to a magical kantele.
Arapaima		Rare	One of the largest freshwater fish as well as one of the oldest, with fossils for this species dating back 23 million years.
Rosefin Shiner		Uncommon	A native to Virginia and Carolina, this fish likes clear freshwater pools and creeks. Take me home, rosefin shiner!
Catfish		Common	Found the whole world over, the humble catfish typically presents with their trademark whiskers, called barbels.
Tiger Oscar		Uncommon	Popular in both aquariums and kitchens, this fish was accidentally misclassified in 1831. Don't make that mistake again!

Ocean Saltwater Fish

Name	Image	Rarity	Description
Herring		Common	The silver darling. A small ocean fish that swims in schools.
Peculiarly Coloured Clupea Pallasi		Legendary	What is this? Why is this here? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS?
Bluefin Tuna		Uncommon	Formerly known as the tunny. Delicious but sadly overfished.
Atlantic Cod		Common	The keystone of fish & chips. Enjoyed since 800 AD.
Flounder		Common	A flatfish found at the bottom of oceans around the world. It's got it's eyes on you!
Coelacanth		Rare	Lazarus had nothing on you. We thought you went to the celestial zoo. The lungfish calls you brother and I guess that we should too.
Mahi-Mahi		Uncommon	Also known as a dolphinfish, this tropical fish is prized for its quality and size. When first taken out of the water, they change colors.
Shrimp		Uncommon	Shrimple as that.
Sardine		Common	At home in a can. Good grilled, pickled or smoked. The sardine isn't a fan of this however.
Barracuda		Rare	You gonna burn, burn, burn, burn, burn to the wick. Ooh, barracuda, oh, yeah.
Sailfish		Epic	A fearsome looking predator with a ferocious temper. Looks like you were up for the challenge!

Aquarium Fish

Name	Image	Rarity	Description
Clownfish		Common	A pop-culturarly significant orange fish that lives in a symbiotic relationship with an enemone.
Damselfish		Common	A small pretty fish native to tropical coral reefs and your local aquarium.
Green Chromis		Common	Beautiful iridescent apple-green. Wait a second, isn't this a damselfish?
Cardinalfish		Uncommon	A nocturnal ray-finned fish enjoyed for being small, peaceful and colourful.
Royal Gramma		Uncommon	A pretty pink and yellow common to aquariums. Peaceful and friendly.
Bicolor Angelfish		Uncommon	It's like two fish in one! Apparently they don't get along with other fish though, at least they have each other.
Blue Tang		Common	One of the most common and popular marine aquarium fish in the world, for reasons now lost to time.
Firefish		Uncommon	Someone set this one on fire! Just kidding, we have fun here.
Pufferfish		Uncommon	Requires meat (like fish fillet) as bait to be caught. Funny looking but surprisingly intelligent, this sought after fish possesses a highly toxic defense mechanism. Its spines will also prick you, causing 3 BRUTE, 3 bleeding, and 2 seconds of Stunned, unless you either 1) have Kitchen Training, 2) are wearing gloves, or 3) have arms made of metal.
Yellow Tang		Common	Born around the full moon, but bright as the sun. A popular, pretty aquarium fish.
Mandarin Fish		Rare	Slow moving reef-dwellers, these extremely colorful fish find it hard to adapt to aquarium life.
Lionfish		Rare	With strong red and white stripes and armed with a full complement of venomous spines, you better be careful handling this one.
Betta		Common	This could be one of 73 species domesticated over 1000 years ago. Sadly used in fish-fights by less savory sorts.

Alien Fish

Disclaimer: No, these fish are not secret. However, the areas where you can find said fish might fall under secret content, such as an Adventure Zone. With the way secret content rules work, you can tell someone where you found a fish and what it does. But you cannot tell them exactly how to reach the fishing spot with that fish if the spot is in a secret area. You can give hints or clues, but you can only give specifics under certain circumstances. See the "No spoilers" rule for more details on the secret content policy.

Name	Image	Rarity	Description
Meat Mutant		Rare	A fish? Whatver it is, it's grown accustomed to swimming in a pool of digestive acids.
Eye Mutant		Rare	Was this a fish once? It's got too many eyes on you.
Splashing Horror		Epic	A writhing, flailing mass of tissue pantomiming a sick caricature of a fish. You should probably just put this one back.
Void Fish		Rare	This fish has swum through the timestream to witness the death of the universe. Probably doesn't fry too well.
Code Worm		Epic	This unstable creature has been swimming around in this code for a long time, giving developers and its victims a massive headache.
Literal Sun Fish		Legendary	Nobody will ever believe you.
Lava Fish		Epic	"A blazing hot catch straight from the planet's core!" as the Examine text describes it. The flames aren't just for show; it actually does set people on fire. Holding this has a 50% to give you 3-5 seconds of Burning, and if you hit someone with it, it has a 50-50 chance to cause 2 seconds of Burning. It's also considered a open flame source, so it can, among other things, light cigarettes and their ilk if you click on one with a lavafish in your active hand.
Igneous Fish		Rare	A fish formed of cooled volcanic magma, neat! Still hot to handle though!
Blobfish		Rare	Looking good, blobfish.
Prosperity Pilchard		Legendary	If you put goldfish on your fishing rod as bait, you have a higher chance of catching this, because the real (or should it be reel?) goldfish eats the fake goldfish. The sparkles and Examine text ("A symbol of good fortune, this fish's shining scales are said to be extremely valuable!") are not just for flavor. Its scales are made of real gold! You can insert this into a portable reclaimer to refine it into a bar of gold.
Arboreal Bass		Rare	The Examine text describes it as similar to tree bark ("This leafy fish's rough scales resemble coarse tree bark"), because it is tree bark. If you put it in a portable reclaimer, you get wood.