How are you supposed to catch "darting" fish?

[Sky Render]

This has eluded me ever since I got the game, and I ended up installing the Easier Fishing mod just to deal with it. Any other fish type I can deal with, but the darters (ie. Octopus, Legend, etc.) do not behave in a manner that makes catching them possible most of the time. They immediately start by jumping up near the top of the catch bar, too fast for you to follow even if you do go into the attempt holding down the button. Then they dart back down to the bottom of the bar almost immediately too, again too fast to follow with the bar. If you wait near the bottom for them to dart back down, they escape. If you try to chase them up and down the bar, they escape. If you sit mid-bar, they escape. How the heck are you supposed to catch these things?

[Vroomi]

Predict their movement. It's mostly about memory.

[Sky Render]

That is 1000000% unhelpful. I just said: it doesn't matter if you can predict where they go (and I can), because they move TOO FAST to catch up with them. They are literally faster than the fishing bar can move. You can't wait them out in a position either because they dart just enough that you either gain no ground or continuously lose ground by doing so.

[Vroomi]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

That is 1000000% unhelpful. I just said: it doesn't matter if you can predict where they go (and I can), because they move TOO FAST to catch up with them. They are literally faster than the fishing bar can move.

If prediction/memorizing their pattern won't help, then try using food that improve your fishing skill and other tools you can get from Willy's shop.

[Sky Render]

That also doesn't help, I've tried those too. The fact that they move too fast to keep up with and dart too frequently to turtle them makes the task impossible unless you get stupid-lucky and get a "slow" one. Which doesn't happen for me because I have the Anti-Luck with randomizers.

[Vroomi]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

That also doesn't help, I've tried those too. The fact that they move too fast to keep up with and dart too frequently to turtle them makes the task impossible unless you get stupid-lucky and get a "slow" one. Which doesn't happen for me because I have the Anti-Luck with randomizers.

I mean, if that doesn't help, I don't know what will.

Just gotta keep trying, then.

[Sky Render]

Thanks, that really helps. Basically "pray the game takes mercy on you" is the best advice I'm going to get. Solid game design right there.

EDIT: There's my typical luck for you right there. Octopus snagged, first thing it does: dart to the top of the bar at a billion miles an hour, then dart to the bottom at a billion miles an hour just as soon as it's been just long enough to lose the catch. Can I get some USEFUL advice please? Maybe a strategy that actually works besides what amounts to being told "git gud"? I'd really appreciate it.

[dino_inc]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

Thanks, that really helps. Basically "pray the game takes mercy on you" is the best advice I'm going to get. Solid game design right there.

EDIT: There's my typical luck for you right there. Octopus snagged, first thing it does: dart to the top of the bar at a billion miles an hour, then dart to the bottom at a billion miles an hour just as soon as it's been just long enough to lose the catch. Can I get some USEFUL advice please? Maybe a strategy that actually works besides what amounts to being told "git gud"? I'd really appreciate it.

Fishing (or at least the more random patterns) are mostly luck based and there's no magical "catch every fish like this". You've already recieved pretty much the extent of the advice in regards to fishing.

[KriegerGeist]

Asks for help. Gets help. Whines.

Caught every fish in the game multiple times. It's about Kryztal's tips and gitting gud.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Level fishi to level 10 by fishing garbage and sardine, then eat Fish 0' Sea for +3 fish, look up wiki and spend next 4 hours for a special kind of fish.

Never use barbed hook, it sucks against anything that mvoes.

Diffcult fishes are not always prized, such as pike. Only fish you need is super cucumber. It is slippery and it is prized.


Also because those partterns are uniformly random in a range, it means it is always more likely to rise at bottom half of the graph and always likely to sink at top half, without knowing the particular range. However, after the first 1-2 struggle, you should start to see the range.

That means you should try to match the fish with bottom half of the bar when it is at lower half of the graph and match the fish with top half of the bar when it is at the higher half of the graph.

You don't wait for mercy, you use expectation against probability.




I was not using fish-ez mod.

[I Kinda Fail]

It helps to keep the fish at the end of your bar. So if the fish is near the bottom, keep the VERY bottom of your bar on the fish, so you have about half a second of reaction time before it starts racing up.

Some of the more difficult fish are just luck, though. I caught the Legend my first try, but it takes other people years in-game to get it.

[Pixel Peeper]

Sad to say, maxing your stats and trying until you get one that doesn't move as much really is the best you can do.

As for it being "bad design", I would agree, except there's only one dev and he hasn't worked on balance yet. So it's less "bad design" and more "still needs work".

The Fishing bar is too small at level 0 and too big at level 10, and more importantly, fish difficulty varies too much; some catch themselves, and indeed, some are literally impossible to catch if the RNG gets nasty enough.

[Sky Render]

Losk, thank you for providing some actually helpful tips on what to look for. I still hold that this minigame has way too much randomizer abuse, but at least there is some marginal mitigation possible.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

I still hold that this minigame has way too much randomizer abuse

It's true, but only for a handful of fish like the harder Legendary ones and the Octopus.

Things like Catfish, Sturgeon and Lingcod are just about the right difficult for level 10 Fishing.

The vast majority of other fish are exceedingly boring to catch.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

Losk, thank you for providing some actually helpful tips on what to look for. I still hold that this minigame has way too much randomizer abuse, but at least there is some marginal mitigation possible.

You are welcome. Also, resource suggests beginners should try their luck outside of the mine.