The only requirements to start fishing are to install one of the Angling Equipment Technologies onto your Multi-tool and be standing next to a body of water.

Simply select your fishing equipment as your 'weapon' & aim at the water. Pull the trigger to cast your line into the water.

Once you have cast your line, it will attract fish, which will appear separately from any nearby aquatic fauna, as translucent, white, and usually smaller. After a short amount of time, you will see the line move, as fish (presumably) start to nibble, or go taut and change colour to yellow or green. Pull the trigger again when the line is green, you will catch a fish or some collected flotsam, which will be added to your inventory.

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Players can add bait to their bait box from their quick menu or from their Angling Equipment technology. Applied bait will add a percentage bonus to 'Catch Rarity Improvement', 'Catch Size Improvement', your chances of catching fish under different conditions (see below), or any combination of the three.

Any crafted fishing bait, caught fish, or cooking ingredients can be used as bait.

Some fish can be caught from any body of water, others depend on certain local conditions, such as Biome, Time of Day, Storms & Water Depth. Certain baits improve your chances of catching fish while specific conditions are in effect.

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There are over 150 different specific fish items that can be caught, of varying rarity. Individual catches can vary by size and weight. Your highest recorded values are tracked in the Catalogue under the Fishing Records tab of the Wonders section.

Aside from fish, players might also catch some Collected Flotsam. Many of these are junk items, worth 500 Units, and described by the game as "Of little use to anyone", but others have some limited further use, such as Message in a Bottle or Rusted Technology.

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The Exo-Skiff is a vehicle that was introduced with the Aquarius update, intended to aid fishing in deep water. It can be deployed on any body of water, to create a static platform that the player can stand on. It also contains cold storage for 60 items in a 10x6 inventory box. This can be increased with save editors.

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Automated Traps can be used to catch fish over time. Up to three can be placed in water on any planet. They have a chance to trap any fish type that can normally be caught in their local environment.

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NOTE: For fishing, Volcanic planets have the same fish as Scorched & Swamp same as Toxic.