A Guide to Catching Fish

With blockbuster titles such as Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3 releasing around a similar time, it could’ve been easy for the indie title, Sea of Stars, to become sorely overlooked. The classic-styled turn-based RPG was a hit with critics, scoring an average of 90 on Metacritic and becoming one of the highest-rated games of the year so far. Thankfully, it’s getting the player base it deserves and has sold over 100,000 copies on its first day alone. That’s an incredible achievement given the game is also available to play as part of Microsoft’s Game Pass and Sony’s PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription services.

Sea of Stars‘ turn-based gameplay includes a lot of fun mechanics that add depth and complexity to enemy encounters. The same can be said for its world exploration and resource management. Fishing is a vital part of the game, but it doesn’t explain the concept very well when players first start out. Since fishing is so important in Sea of Stars, player will need to know how to do it successfully and where to go to find every species of fish.

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Why Is Fishing So Important in Sea of Stars?

In a system similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, meals play an important role in restoring party members’ HP and MP in Sea of Stars. To cook meals, players need ingredients and fish fillets are incredibly useful here.

Catching fish is also vital for completing several side missions later in the game. For example, one side mission requires players to catch all 23 species of fish for the Master Fisherman, who offers varying rewards for hitting milestones along the way. Once players catch nine fish, he’ll give them the Mithreel Rod relic, which will make catching the remaining fish a lot easier. There is also a trophy/achievement for catching all 23 species of fish, which is a nice bonus reward.

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How to Catch Fish Successfully in Sea of Stars

Although Sea of Stars lets the protagonists swim in most bodies of water, they can’t simply dive in and catch the fish with their bare hands. Instead, players must find a fishing dock and partake in a fishing mini-game. To get started, cast a line by pressing the indicated action button — A on Xbox consoles and Nintendo Switch, or X on PlayStation consoles. Use the analog stick or D-pad to direct the line and press the action button again to drop it into the water.

It’s a good idea to throw the line all the way to the top of the pond first to reveal the fishes’ approximate locations. This makes it easier for players to figure out where they want to aim. Without doing this, it’s difficult to react the first time as the screen scrolls upwards. Once the line drops into the water, it will cause a circular ripple effect. The fish inside this circle will race towards the line and the first one there will automatically latch on.

Once a fish has latched onto the line, players need to hold the action button to reel it in. It might feel natural to want to use the analog stick to pull downwards to bring the fish in, but it’s unnecessary and makes controlling the rod harder. Instead, players can simply focus on using the analog stick or D-pad to steer the line left or right, while simply holding the action button — keeping the fish inside the lighter blue path.

If the fish pulls outside that zone, it will damage the line, which will flash red if it’s close to breaking. If it breaks, it’s not the end of the world. The fish will simply swim back to the approximate area it was caught in. It won’t immediately be transported back, so players can quickly cast the rod again to catch it in its nearer position. Doing so will make life a lot easier for the next attempt as it won’t have so far to travel to the dock, where it will successfully be caught.

Once a fish has been caught, players will have the option to either release it, or to fillet it. There’s no benefit to releasing fish — unless, of course, players simply want to practice their fishing by catching it again. So players might as well fillet the fish and use them later on to cook nutritious meals.

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Where to Catch Fish in Sea of Stars

Fish can only be caught in designated fishing locations. Players can find these spots when exploring the wider world map and traveling between locations. To enter, simply walk up to a fishing lake icon and press the action button to enter. None of the locations are hard to find, so players can always return later on to restock or catch any fish they might have missed.

The wooden signs by the fishing docks tell players which fish live in the lake. They’re silhouetted if they are yet to be caught and colored in and titled once they have been. These signs help players to keep track of which fish they’ve caught and which fish have so far eluded them.