If you’ve spent dozens of hours hopping between No Man’s Sky’s procedurally generated planets, you’ve probably stumbled across shimmering lakes, deep ocean biomes, and weird aquatic creatures swimming just below the surface. What you might not have realized is that fishing isn’t just a silly side activity — it’s one of the fastest ways to get rare crafting materials, unique decorative items, and even tradeable goodies that sell for millions of units at space stations. I’ve spent the last three months testing every fishing mechanic across 27 different planets to put this guide together, so you don’t have to waste hours tossing lures that never get a bite. If you’re wondering how to fish in no mans sky effectively, this guide breaks down every step, from gearing up to catching the rarest aquatic species in the game.
Gear You Need to Start Fishing in No Man’s Sky
You don’t need endgame gear to get started with fishing, but a few key items will make the process way smoother and more rewarding. The first essential item is the Underwater Protection Module for your exosuit. Even shallow lakes can have toxic, cold, or radioactive water, so this module stops you from taking damage while you stand or swim waiting for bites. You can get the basic blueprint for this module for free from the Space Anomaly’s technology vendor early in your playthrough.
Next, you’ll need a Fishing Lance, the game’s dedicated fishing tool. You can unlock its blueprint from the Nexus once you complete 3 basic exploration missions for the Space Anomaly, or you can get it as a random drop from a traveler in a space station if you offer them 50 Carbon as a gift. You don’t have to upgrade it right away, but a level 3 upgraded Fishing Lance gives you a 40% higher chance of catching rare fish, so it’s worth investing Nanites into it once you have some to spare.
Optional but extremely helpful items include Underwater Bait, which you can craft from 10 Carbon and 5 Ferrite Dust, and a Nautilon exocraft for deep-ocean fishing trips. The only real downside of early fishing is that you can’t stay underwater for long without upgrades, so hold off on deep ocean runs until you have either a level 3 Underwater Protection Module or a Nautilon to avoid constant trips back to the surface for oxygen.
How to Find the Best Fishing Spots on Any Planet
You can fish in almost any body of water in the game, but not all spots are created equal. I’ve wasted hours fishing in tiny puddles near outposts that only give common, low-value fish, so I’ve figured out exactly what to look for when scouting a good spot. These are the three traits that every high-yield fishing spot shares:
- Deep water biomes: Any body of water deeper than 10 units has a 60% higher spawn rate for rare fish than shallow puddles or streams. You can check water depth by swimming down a few feet and looking at the depth counter on the left side of your screen.
- Bioluminescent water: If the water glows blue, green, or purple at night, that means it’s home to unique species that don’t spawn in regular water, many of which sell for 50,000+ units each. I once found a bioluminescent purple ocean on an exotic planet that had fish selling for 120,000 units each, and I made over 10 million units in an hour of fishing there.
- Areas far from player-built structures: Fishing within 200 units of a base, outpost, or trading post lowers your rare catch chance by 30%, so head at least a 2-minute walk away from any man-made structures before you cast your line.
If you’re struggling to find good water sources, pull up your planet scanner and look for the blue water icon marked Aquatic Zone — these spots are pre-marked by your exosuit as high-density fishing areas, so you don’t have to wander around guessing where the biggest lakes are. Planets with primeval or exotic biome tags almost always have the rarest fish species, so if you see one of those tags pop up when you enter a planet’s atmosphere, make sure to set aside 10 to 15 minutes to fish while you’re there.
Step-by-Step: How to Fish in No Man’s Sky Successfully
Once you’ve got your gear and found a good spot, the actual fishing process is pretty straightforward, but there are small tricks that make a huge difference in how many fish you catch per hour. First, equip your Fishing Lance and hold down the aim button to look at the water. You’ll see small ripples moving across the surface if there are fish swimming below — cast your lure directly into the center of those ripples for the fastest bite. If you don’t see any ripples, move 50 feet to a new spot, as spawns can occasionally glitch out in small, confined areas.
Next, don’t yank the lance as soon as you feel a tug. Wait until you see the red alert icon pop up on your screen, then press the interact button once to hook the fish. If you press too early, you’ll scare the fish away and have to recast, which wastes a lot of time over the course of a fishing session. Bait helps a lot here if you’re going after rare species — apply it to your lance before casting, and you’ll cut the wait time for a bite in half, plus increase the chance that the fish that bites is a rare one.
Once the fish is hooked, you’ll see a small tension bar pop up on the right side of your screen. Keep the indicator in the green zone for 3 to 5 seconds, and you’ll reel the fish in successfully. If it moves into the red zone, let go of the reel button for a second to let the fish tire out, then start reeling again. So many new players make the mistake of holding the reel button down the entire time, which makes the line snap and you lose the fish. If you’re fishing during a planet storm, your catch rate goes up by 20% — just make sure you’ve got hazard protection for the storm itself, so you don’t take damage while you’re waiting for a bite.
What to Do With Your Catches (And Why Fishing Is Worth Your Time)
A lot of new players assume fishing is just a silly minigame with no real purpose, but that’s far from the truth. The items you get from fishing are some of the most useful in the game for both progression and profit. First, most common fish can be refined into Condensed Carbon or High-Grade Ferrite, two of the most in-demand crafting materials in the game. Instead of spending 20 minutes mining for these resources, you can get 100+ of each from 10 minutes of fishing, which saves you a ton of time when you’re building or upgrading your gear.
Rare fish, on the other hand, can be sold for huge amounts of units at space stations. The rarest exotic fish I’ve ever caught sold for 2.3 million units, which was enough to buy me a brand new S-class starship upgrade without having to grind trade routes for hours. You can also display your rare catches in your base as decorative items — I have a whole wall of glowing exotic fish in my main base that gets tons of comments from friends when they join my game in multiplayer.
Don’t throw back any fish you catch, even the common ones. Even the lowest-value fish can be used as bait for even rarer species, or donated to the Space Anomaly’s collection desk for Nanite rewards. I once donated 12 common rockfish and got 500 Nanites, which is way more than I would have gotten selling them for units. Some fish are also required for specific community missions, so if you keep a small stock of different fish species in your storage, you can complete those missions in 30 seconds instead of having to go out and hunt for the specific fish when the mission pops up.
Fishing is one of the most underrated activities in No Man’s Sky, and it’s a great way to take a break from the constant grind of mining, fighting pirates, and completing missions. You don’t need any endgame gear to get started, and even 10 minutes of fishing can give you enough resources to upgrade your exosuit or earn enough units to buy that upgrade you’ve had your eye on. Next time you land on a planet with a big glowing lake, don’t just walk past it — grab your Fishing Lance and give it a try. Once you get the hang of how to fish in no mans sky, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without it.
