Part of the series:
- No Man's Sky Creatures & Companions Guide: Hub for pets, breeding, mounts, and discovery.
- How to Feed & Milk Creatures: Harvest resources from tamed fauna.
Quick Answer
- Fishing requires a Fishing Rig installed on your Multi-Tool, added in the Aquarius update.
- Cast into water and wait for three translucent fish to appear near your line.
- When the line goes taut, reel in the fish.
- Water depth determines fish size: shallow water yields small fish, deep water yields larger ones.
- Bait increases the chance of catching larger, rarer, or condition-specific fish.
- Caught fish can be cooked, sold, or recorded in your Catalogue.
Overview
Fishing turns No Man's Sky's oceans, lakes, and rivers from scenery into a productive activity. With the right rig and bait, you can catch common snacks, rare trophy fish, and even legendary specimens that sell for serious Units. Fish also feed into the Nutrient Processor for high-quality recipes.
Getting Started
Before you can fish, you need a Fishing Rig. This is a Multi-Tool upgrade that you install like any other technology. A cosmetic variant called the Lost Angler's Rig functions the same way but looks different.
You will also want an Exo-Skiff for a stable fishing platform in deep water, though it is optional. The Automated Trap is another optional tool that passively catches fish over time.
| Gear | Required? | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing Rig | Required | The Multi-Tool technology that lets you cast at all. The Lost Angler's Rig is a cosmetic alternative with identical function |
| Bait Box | Effectively required | Holds your bait. Reached from the Multi-Tool inventory or the Quick Menu under Utilities |
| Exo-Skiff | Optional | A stable platform anywhere on open water, which lets you fish depths no shoreline reaches. Gets unstable in bad weather |
| Starship with Aqua-Jets | Optional | Lands on water and works as a fixed platform, with the added benefit of somewhere to stow your catch |
| Automated Trap | Optional | Collects fish passively while you do something else nearby |
| Hazard protection | Situational | Fishing on toxic, scorched, or irradiated worlds means standing in the hazard for the whole session |
The gear you actually need is smaller than the list suggests. A rig and a bait box cover everything, and the platforms only matter once you are chasing colossal fish in water too deep to reach from a beach.
How to Cast and Reel
With the Fishing Rig equipped:
- Stand near a body of water.
- Cast your line into the water.
- Wait for three translucent fish to gather near the line.
- One fish will nibble, then the line will change color and go taut.
- Reel in at the right moment to catch it.
Reeling too early returns nothing. A brief press bobs the line without reeling, which can help time your catch.
The color change is the signal to watch, not the fish. Translucent fish drifting near the line means nothing has committed yet; the moment the line changes and pulls taut, a fish is on and you reel. Anything you do between those two states either wastes the cast or does nothing.
Common ways a cast goes wrong:
- Reeling on the nibble. The approach animation looks like a bite. Wait for the line, not the fish.
- Casting into water that is too shallow. No amount of patience turns a shallow cast into a large fish. Move to deeper water instead.
- Recasting too often. Every recast throws away the trio you already had, so only do it deliberately when the sizes on offer are wrong.
- Fishing with an empty bait box. Bait is the main lever you have over what shows up, and running dry quietly halves your results.
Fish Sizes and Water Depth
Fish come in four sizes: small, medium-sized, large, and colossal. The depth of the water you cast into determines which sizes can appear. The HUD shows the depth of your cast in the bottom-left corner when fishing.
| Depth | Likely Sizes | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Shallow | Small to medium | Rivers, pond edges, shelving beaches |
| Moderate | Medium to large | Larger lakes, a short swim out from a coastline |
| Deep | Large to colossal | Open ocean, steep-sided coastlines, water worlds |
If you want trophy fish, find deep water: oceans, large lakes, or deep ponds.
Finding a Good Spot
Position matters more than technique. What you want is deep water you can cast into from dry land, which means a shoreline that drops away steeply rather than a gently shelving beach. Water worlds and lush planets with large oceans supply these readily, and the depth readout tells you within a single cast whether a spot is worth staying at.
Once you find one, mark it. A save beacon or a small base beside productive deep water gives you a destination you can return to, which matters because condition-specific fish will bring you back at different times of day. Players who fish seriously keep one or two known spots instead of hunting for fresh water every session.
The Exo-Skiff exists for water no shoreline reaches. It puts a platform anywhere on the surface, at the cost of becoming unstable when the weather turns. On a storm-prone world that is the same weather that unlocks storm-condition fish, so decide whether you are chasing those species or want a comfortable session before deploying it.
The Three Fish System
The three translucent fish that appear while fishing are not the actual fish; they indicate the possible sizes available at that cast. They can be all the same size or a mix. When mixed, the combination is usually two small and one medium, or two large and one colossal.
If the trio is mixed, the larger fish is always caught. If you want a specific size and the current trio does not show it, recast to generate a new set before any fish nibbles.
That rule turns fishing into a filtering exercise rather than a waiting one. A cast showing three small fish in deep water is a cast to abandon: recast, read the trio, and only commit when the sizes on offer match what you came for. Recasting costs seconds, while landing a fish you did not want costs an inventory slot and the time to sell or discard it.
Because the larger fish always wins in a mixed trio, mixed sets are as good as uniform ones. Two large and one colossal guarantees the colossal, so a trio containing a single colossal is worth as much to a trophy hunter as one showing three. Repeated small-only trios, on the other hand, mean the water is not deep enough and no amount of recasting will fix it.
Bait and Conditions
Bait is added through the Bait Box, accessible from the Multi-Tool inventory or Quick Menu under Utilities. Crafted baits, caught fish, cooking ingredients, and edible products can all be used.
Bait can improve your chances of catching:
- Larger fish
- Rarer fish
- Fish that only appear under certain conditions
Some fish only appear during the day, at night, during storms, or in specific biomes. Check the tooltip when adding bait to see what it targets.
| Bait category | What it improves | When to load it |
|---|---|---|
| Size-focused | The odds of larger size classes appearing in the trio | Trophy hunting in deep water |
| Rarity-focused | The chance of uncommon and rare species | Filling gaps in the Fishing Records |
| Condition-focused | Species tied to a specific time of day or weather | Chasing one particular missing entry |
| Everyday organics: cooking ingredients, surplus food, small caught fish | A modest general improvement, at no real cost | Casual sessions, and clearing ingredient clutter out of your inventory |
Working the Conditions
Condition-locked fish are the entries that stall a collection, and each condition has a way to force it:
| Condition | When it applies | How to make it happen |
|---|---|---|
| Day | The planet's local daylight hours | Fish during the light, or fly to the lit hemisphere |
| Night | After dark | Fly to the unlit side of the planet rather than waiting out the day-night cycle |
| Storm | While a planetary storm is running | Fish on a storm-prone extreme world and wait for the weather warning |
| Biome | Always, on the matching planet type | Travel to a planet of that type |
Flying to the night side is the trick worth internalizing. Waiting for a planet to rotate takes a long real-time stretch, while boosting to the dark hemisphere takes a minute or two and holds you in permanent night for as long as you stay put. The same approach works in reverse for daylight species. The planet types, biomes, and hazards guide covers which worlds get the storms you need for the weather-locked catches.
Biomes and Unique Fish
Most biomes with water have their own unique fish. Lush, Barren, Exotic, Scorched, Toxic, Irradiated, Water Worlds, and Gas Giants each offer distinct species. Volcanic and Marsh biomes do not have unique fish of their own; they share varieties with Scorched and Lush biomes respectively.
Anomalous and Dead planets lack water entirely, so fishing is not possible there.
| Biome | Unique fish? | Notes for a collection run |
|---|---|---|
| Lush | Yes | Easiest place to start, with plentiful accessible water |
| Barren | Yes | Water is sparse, so scan from orbit before landing |
| Exotic | Yes | Worth a detour, since exotic worlds are less commonly fished |
| Scorched | Yes | Bring hazard protection for the whole session |
| Toxic | Yes | Bring hazard protection for the whole session |
| Irradiated | Yes | Bring hazard protection for the whole session |
| Water world | Yes | Deep water everywhere, which makes these the best colossal-fish grounds |
| Gas giant | Yes | A distinct set worth the trip once you are completing records |
| Volcanic | Shares with Scorched | Skip if you have already fished a Scorched world |
| Marsh | Shares with Lush | Skip if you have already fished a Lush world |
| Anomalous / Dead | No water | Cannot fish here at all |
For a completion run, the two shared biomes are free skips. Fishing a Volcanic world after a Scorched one, or a Marsh world after a Lush one, adds nothing to your records.
Using Your Catch
Fish have several uses:
- Sell: Rarer fish sell for more Units at Galactic Trade Terminals.
- Cook: Use the Nutrient Processor to turn fish into restorative and valuable dishes.
- Catalogue: Your largest catches are recorded in the Fishing Records tab of the Catalogue under Wonders.
- Bait: Caught fish can be recycled into the Bait Box to catch even better fish.
Selling raw fish at a Galactic Trade Terminal is the fast option and the worst-paying one. Running the same catch through a Nutrient Processor first turns it into a dish, and finished dishes are worth considerably more than the ingredients that went into them. If Units are the goal, cook before you sell. The cooking and Nutrient Processor guide covers which chains are worth the extra step.
The recycling loop makes long sessions self-sustaining. Small fish you did not want go back into the Bait Box, which improves the odds on later casts, which produces better fish.
One habit worth building: check the Fishing Records tab before a trip, not after. The records track your largest catch per species, so knowing which entries are empty and which are merely small tells you whether you need a new biome, a specific condition, or simply deeper water. Fishing without checking first is how players end up filling their inventory with species they already had.
FAQ
Why am I not catching anything?
Make sure you are casting into deep enough water and waiting for the nibble animation. If the fish disappear, recast. Also confirm you have a Fishing Rig installed, not just a Multi-Tool weapon.
What is the best bait?
Crafted baits tailored to the fish you want are best. For general use, items that boost size and rarity are solid. Experiment based on the tooltip when adding bait.
Can I fish from my starship?
You cannot cast from a flying starship, but landing a starship with Aqua-Jets on water can provide a stable platform. The Exo-Skiff can become unstable in extreme weather.
Do fish sizes affect value?
The size in kilograms is recorded in your Catalogue but does not directly affect value. Rarity is the main driver of price.
Can I fish on any planet?
You need water. Anomalous and Dead planets have no water. If you cannot find water on a planet, try traveling to the opposite side of the globe.
How do I catch a fish that only appears at night?
Fly to the unlit hemisphere rather than waiting for the planet to rotate. You arrive in night conditions within a couple of minutes and stay there as long as you keep fishing that spot. Load condition-focused bait before you cast.
Should I keep small fish or discard them?
Keep them for the Bait Box. Small catches you have no other use for feed straight back into your bait supply and improve the odds on the casts that follow, which is better value than the handful of Units they sell for.
Is the Exo-Skiff worth building?
Only once you are chasing colossal fish. A steep-sided shoreline reaches deep water on most ocean planets, and land is stable in weather that makes the Skiff wobble. Build it when you find yourself repeatedly needing depths that no coastline provides.
Keep Exploring
- Cook your catch into valuable meals with the cooking and Nutrient Processor guide.
- Release rare fish for currency using the how to get Nanites fast guide.
Key Takeaways
- Install a Fishing Rig on your Multi-Tool to start fishing.
- Cast into deep water for larger fish.
- The three visible fish indicate possible sizes; recast if you want different odds.
- Bait improves size, rarity, and condition-specific catches.
- Sell, cook, or catalogue your catches.