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Fruity Snacks

The Final Fish

Malboro [Crystal]

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Thoughts on catching every fish in the game

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October 14th, 2020, I completed the fishing log. For those who don't know what that means, I have caught every species of fish (1,091 fish as of 5.35) in the entire game at least once. Someone asked me to drop my thoughts on the journey to this achievement, so here's my long ramblings on it.

It's fun. Fishing gets a bad rap for being dull and hella RNG heavy and without any sort of useful goal. Some of that, in some cases is true -- there are some fish which are dull, frustrating and extremely rng heavy on multiple layers (Looking at you, Spectral Currents). It's absolutely not for everyone, but in the grand scheme of it all, that is only a tiny portion of fish which most players won't ever even consider catching, or have even heard of. Fishing has lead to some of the best experiences in the game, topping even some Savage raid clearing achievements.

Fishing is, also and more importantly to me, probably the most social skill in the game. You see another fisher at a fishing hole and you know what they are there to do - fish. Fishers are one of the most sociable and nicest groups of people I have met in the game... and this is how I got started, and why I continue to fish.

It started back in maybe February, March, I don't remember. I saw a small lalafel fishing in Gridania by the Adders HQ. They were telling another, newer looking fisher which bait to use and how to catch the rare 4-start fish (Bloody Brewer) at the hole. I've always been interested in fishing, but had really only done it to do gather materials and make some light gil on the side, I hadn't really gotten that one kick to really dive deep into it. I figured why not try this, they seemed nice enough to help, so I grabbed the bait casted out and caught the fish. This fish is probably one of the easiest a fisher can catch, but the lalafel was cheering both of us on to catch it and cheered when we did. "Huh, this isn't so bad" I thought. I decided that, having just finished a relic grind, I would do something different and catch every fish in the city of New Gridania.

Well, that was a mistake, because that didn't take too long and I was like "well, let's do the other cities" -- so I went to Limsa, caught Octomammoth and other big fish there. Then I learned that Octomammoth could desynth into a valuable glam. "Huh, now I can make more money fishing?" I thought, searching for new fish to catch, desynth and sell. This continued until I discovered the Carbuncle Plushy fish tracking resource -- a website which tells you when and where big fish will be available to catch, telling you the bait, mooch chains and more -- a staple resource for any big fisher. This then lead me to Fisherman's Horizon Discord (or, Fishcord) and the massive community of other people who, like me, got hooked on fishing throughout the Source and the First. Fishing became a rabbit hole that I gladly fell down.

... and then the first Ishgard Rankings started. Having just started Working for Home due to then growing Epidemic (turned Pandemic) in the US, I thought "well, might as well do this and just do my best!" Initially, I wanted to see what it was like, then after the first day I was like 13th or something. "Welp, I'm that close to top 12, might as well go for it!" and fell in. Climbed from 13th or so up to 1st place in 7-8 days and then held that position for the rest of the rankings. I was the #1 fisher on Malboro. I put myself even deeper into the fishing community with this rankings, and decided that I needed to catch all the big fish for the Grand Master Caster title.

So I started figuring out which fish I should focus on first. With 204 fish big fish on the Source (and 22ish on the First) I decdied that I would focus on the rarer window fish (ones where their windows are not common, sometimes only getting a chance to fish it for 15m one a week, if that). In between those windows, I would complete the Fishing Log on the First. The latter only took a week or so, and the list of rare fish on the First got shortened relatively quickly due to some lucky windows, such as getting The Ruby Dragon in my first window, a fish which can take months, if not over a year to catch for some (my luck continued and throughout my journey to completing the log I caught Ruby Dragon a total of three times). All throughout this goal, my new friends and fellow fishers of the Fishcord and some Cross-world Linkshells were cheering me on. More importantly though, they were offering tips and stories of their encounters with some of the more notorious fish in the game.

Somewhere in there I completed the spearfishing log and the Ocean fishing titles and point achievements. That's a story all in itself.

Fishing is one of the most social jobs in the game because ontop of there being a shared goal and conversation starter, it encourages fish tales. You ask big fishers about their experiences catch almost any fish in the game, and a good handful of them will spin you a story about how they caught it. This isn't Roleplaying (RPing), this is whats actually happened. Fishing encourages players to talk to each other, share their stories, share their experiences and that, to me, is what makes Fishing probably one of the best jobs in the game.

Yes, fishing is layered in RNG. Yes, fishing can be dull. Yes, fishing can sometimes not seem worth it -- but if you are looking to get immersed in the game and the world of Final Fantasy XIV, there is no better place to go. It takes you places in the world you probably didn't know existed. You can fish by yourself if you just need something to take your mind off things, or you can fish with a group if you need someone to talk to that isn't your wife or cat. There is now something for everyone.

YoshiP wants more people to fish and even do big-fishing. I welcome everyone with the same (or greater) level of enthusiasm and excitement that I was provided at the start of my journey. Do I think fishing is for everyone? No, but if you've only done ocean fishing grinds to level up quickly, or just fished up some Aethersand for a craft, try going for a couple big fish, and see what it's like. If you're not sure what to do? Ask. Ask me, ask another fisher, they'll be more than happy to help or to work with you to figure it out.

For now, I'll continue to fish to fund some ingame projects of mine until 5.4, when fishing is turned on its head with the Fish Eye changes. Until this, goodluck and happy casting.
Comments (5)

Lilyhannah Lunafreya

Midgardsormr [Aether]

Hey, I'm looking to start my own grind of this after playing casually for about two years (and managing to snag about 191 unique fish so far). I know this post is almost a whole year old (and I'm sure you've caught the newest fish!) and it was the first link when I googled about catching all the fish of this game. Such a great read, I'm really excited to continue my journey, especially as I always loved fishing in games. <3 Hope you're excited for all the Endwalker fish!

Carbuncle Plushy

Balmung [Crystal]

Thank you so much for the mention Fruity! And that's such a huge accomplishment catching all of them. I've still got such a long ways to go, but I also have met so many cool players at random fishing holes. Can't wait to be fishing on the moon with you and everyone else!

Aurielle Solestris

Brynhildr [Crystal]

I love this. I wholeheartedly agree about the social aspect of fishing being it's primary strength. I'll never forget sitting around with a dozen strangers fishing for Gigant Clams for the Lucis Rod way back when, or seeing two people get Warden almost simultaneously and dancing with each other and screaming in glee for the next ten minutes. I may never finish the log or get all the big fish but I will never not enjoy the experiences fishing has lead to and will continue to lead to.

Ashe Timberpool

Siren [Aether]

I recently was in a zone and there was some big fish-off; I never found out what was happening; but it definitely made me want to look into what it would take to fish up all of the fish in Eoreza. Thanks for writing such an encouraging tale! I hope to encounter other fishers out in my future endeavors as they are few and far between.

Pristis Blackthorn

Twintania [Light]

Even though I post this like year later and stuff, I got into big fishing because of the title but stayed for the content. Been doing fishing for a year almost and its now become the only thing I do. Love your guides for firmament, ocean fishing and big fish in general. Been super helpful on my journey for big fish title. Ruby dragon being my last big fish in the game and as of writing this my 25th ruby window being tomorrow evening! Wishing good luck for all the fishers out there!
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