EveryNo Man’s Skyupdate brings something new to this ongoing space epic. The Aquarius update has brought something long requested by No Man’s Sky fans: fishing. Finally, Travelers can land their spaceship near a quiet ravine or lake, kick off their space boots, and throw a line into the water to see if the fish are biting.

The casual serenity of fishing is the perfect thing for weary Travelers tired of exploring an endless universe. The low-stakes exploration of a local watering hole provides all the thrill of discovery without the risk of pirates, Sentinels, or giant bug monsters. So grab your rod and learn how to fish in No Man’s Sky.

Image of a happy Gek fishing in No Man’s Sky.

How To Get The Fishing Rig

Your first step to going on your fishing adventure isgrabbing the Fishing Rig from the Anomaly. Head to the Anomaly and speak to Iteration Eos in the research area behind Polo and Nada. You’ll be able to purchase the Fishing Rig blueprint from Eos for a single Nanite.

Once you have the blueprint, you’ll need toinstall the Fishing Rig on your Multi-Tool. To do that, you’ll need the following ingredients:

A Gek Traveller hauling in a caught fish in No Man’s Sky.

Veteran No Man’s Sky players should have plenty of these lying around, but if you need some, here are a fewguides to grabbing Di-Hydrogenand Chromatic Metal.

Now that you’ve got your Fishing Rig installed,it’s time to go fishing!

Image of a No Man’s Sky player applying mealworms before fishing.

How To Fish With The Fishing Rig

Once you’ve got your Fishing Rig installed,head to the nearest body of water. While fish can live in many different types of planetary environments, they only live in water.

Not every planet will have water. Barren, Scorched, and Volcanic planets might have little to no water, while Dead worlds will have zero water.Look for Marshy, Frozen, and Lush worlds for water. For more,check out our planetary guide here.

Image of a No Man’s Sky player catching an A-Class fish.

Find a nice spot near the water’s edge andselect your Fishing Rig from your Multi-Tool(the same way you would select the Terrain Manipulator, Mining Tool, or your various weapon systems).Press RT or the left mouse button to castyour lead at the spot indicated on the water.

If your target area is too far or not on water, you’ll receive an error message.

Image of the Automated Fishing Trap recipe in No Man’s Sky.

Now comes the hard part: waiting. Fish won’t immediately bite, butafter a few seconds, you’ll see your lure start to bob in the wateralongside a yellow flash. This indicates that a fish is interested in your lure.Once the lure sinks below the water as your Fishing Rig and lure glow green, you’ve hooked a fish, andit’s time to reel it in by holding RT/left mouse.

Wait until the indicator turns greento reel your catch. If the Rig flashes yellow, it’s too early.

Image of an active Automated Fishing Trap waiting to catch fish in No Man’s Sky.

If successful, your catch will appear in the middle of your screen. Fish can vary widely by size and quality, which will be indicated by the rarity of your catch.To catch better fish, you’ll need to enhance your lure with bait.

How To Apply Bait To Your Fishing Rig

If you want better fish, you’re going to need bait. Luckily,you learn six bait recipes as soon as you install your first Fishing Rig. Those bait recipes are below:

Improves size and rarity of catch

80 Mordite, 25 Phosphorous, 90 Di-hydrogen → 20 Spicy Chum

Further improves size and rarity of catch

Bionic Lure

2 Amino Chamber, 3 Ionic Battery, 3 Lubricant → 20 Bionic Lure

Greatly Improves the size and rarity of catch, especially for seeking Legendary-grade fish

Dangling Orb

1 Solar Mirror, 1 Metal Plating, 65 Sodium Nitrate → 20 Dangling Orb

Attracts diurnal fish

Shadow Lure

2 Antimatter, 1 Metal Plating, 40 Cyto-Phosphate → 20 Shadow Lure

Attracts nocturnal fish

Magpulse Lure

1 Magnetic Resonator, 1 Metal Plating, 90 Tritium → 20 Magpulse Lure

Attracts fish only active during storms

These six recipes aren’t the only items that can be used as bait.Other items can also be applied to your Fishing Rig to act as bait, such as Juicy Grubs or Meaty Chunks.

To apply bait to your Fishing Rig, you’ll first need tocreate the bait in your Exosuit inventory. Once done, go to your Multi-Tool andselect the Fishing Rig option ‘Apply Bait.‘You’ll then be taken to a new screen where you may select the type of bait you wish to apply from your inventory.

This screenalsoshows how your bait improves the size and rarity of your catchas a percentage.

Bait can make a big differencein the quality of your catch. You should generally apply some sort of bait to your Fishing Rig before fishing.

You lose one bait every time you reel your lure in, regardless of whether you’ve caught something or not.

What Fish You Can Catch

There are quite a number of different fish able to be caught—possibly equal to the number of procedurally generated species on every planet. However, just like starships and technology upgrades,fish will fall into four different rarity categories: C, B, A, and S.

The higher the rarity, the more valuable the catch, and the better quality meals it can produce.

How To Cook Fish

Like other ingredients, caughtfish can be cooked using the Nutrient Processor.

Construct the Nutrient Processor and place it on the ground (no power or base is required for its operation). Interact with the Nutrient Processor to bring up its menu.you may place up to three raw ingredients for processing.

Every fish can be processed into a cooked meal. Fish can also be combined to create more potent and valuable dishes. you may cook two fish for a moderately expensive and nutritious meal, or three fish for an even more expensive and nutritious meal.

The quality of the ingredients determines the quality of the cooked dish. The rarer the fish you put into the Nutrient Processor, the more valuable and healthful the final product.

How To Automate Your Fishing

Half the point of fishing is to achieve a meditative state waiting for a fish to bite, but if you’re not interested in the whole fishing thing, you canautomate the process using the Automated Fishing Trap.

you may buyblueprints for the Automated Fishing Trap on the Anomalyat the Construction Research Station for one Salavaged Data. Creating an Automated Fishing Trap requires the following ingredients:

Automated Fishing Traps can beplaced on the water and then returned to later to see what you catch. Each Automated Fishing Trap can catch up to four fish.

Unfortunately, theAutomated Fishing Trap cannot have bait appliedin the same way as the Fishing Rig. Because of this, the overall quality of fish caught using these traps is generally lower than what you can get by actively fishing on your own. But if it’s quantity over quality you’re after, the Automated Fishing Trap is the perfect way to fish.

Create an underwater basewith many Fishing Traps to set up your owndeep-sea fish farm.

Now get out there andenjoy the calm joy of fishingin an infinite universe!