When you need a break from salvaging Golden Age tech on Titan and diving into the depth of Kraken Mare, Destiny 2 has another, much more casual activity in Season of the Deep. Follow the main quest and you'll eventually be directed to visit Hawthorne, who will get you set up with a fishing rod and bait so you can live out your dream of becoming the Vanguard's greatest fisherman. Finally, Destiny 2 is a real MMO.
Fishing isn't complicated, but there are a few wrinkles that make it unique from other kinds of fishing mini-games. If you can't seem to figure out your casting reel from your electric eel, we've got the fishing deets you're looking for.
How Do I Unlock Fishing In Destiny 2?
You'll need to make some progress in the Season of the Deep campaign before you'll have access to fishing. After rescuing Sloan in the intro, complete both the Salvage mission and the Deep Dive mission as they're introduced. Once you finish your first Deep Dive, you'll be instructed to visit Hawthorne at the tower where you'll learn about collecting fishing tackle and using your fishing rod. This quest line will take you to each of the three fishing holes on Nessus, The EDZ, and Savathun's Throne World, and finally back to the H.E.L.M. where you'll deposit your first batch of fish into the tank. Return to Hawthorne after for ten free bait, then you're on your own to fish to your heart's desire.
Where Do I Find Bait For Fishing?
Bait is rewarded for completing Salvage, Deep Dive, playlist activities, public events, patrols, and collecting planetary materials. The amount of bait you'll earn is correlated to the amount of time it takes so complete each activity. Collecting planetary materials will give you a single bait, but completing a Salvage mission will give you up to 16. You can hold up to 500 bait at a time in your inventory, so make sure you don't hit your cap.
Where Do I Fish In Destiny 2?
There are three locations that have fishing holes: the Outskirts on the EDZ, the Cistern on Nessus, and the Miasma on Savathun's Throne World. If you follow the map marker for each one you will find yourself in the general vicinity of a fishing hole, but not necessarily where the fishing hole is located. When a fishing hole appears, you'll see a message onscreen telling you that, then you can follow a white beam of light in the sky toward to location of the hole. It will look like a circle of wooden blanks over the water with some fish decorations hanging from it, so it's pretty hard to miss.
How Do I Fish In Destiny 2?
Stand on the planks and face the water, then press your interact buttons to cast your line. If you've played fishing mini-games before, this should be pretty familiar. Your goal is to press your interact button again the second you see your bobber dip beneath the water. The faster you hit it, the better quality your catch will be, with 'perfect' being the highest. Every cast will cost you one bait, and if you press your interact button before the bobber goes underwater, you'll withdraw your hook without any fish and lose the catch.
Fishing holes will disappear anytime a public event starts nearby, then reappear shortly after. Use this opportunity to refill your fishing tackle if you start running low.
What Is Focused Fishing?
While fishing, a meter called Focused Fishing will appear on the left side of your screen. The more you and others fish, the more the meter will increase. The higher it goes, the more likely you are to find rarer fish. So, try to go fishing in groups and bring plenty of bait to ensure you're raising your Focusing Fishing level as high as possible every time you go fishing. This meter will reset if a public event appears, so ideally you want to start right when a fishing hole appears and fish as much as you can all at once.
What Can I Get From Fishing?
Each of the three locations has its own set of fish, and there are uncommon, rare, and legendary fish. Your triumph page will keep track of which fish you have caught and how many, and you can earn a number of decorations for your aquarium by completing triumphs.
Fishing is also the main source of this season's Reckoning weapons. Before you can focus your Deep Engrams into a Reckoning weapon at the Sonar Station vendor, you'll first need to find that weapon by fishing. Catching legendary fish and turning them in at the aquarium in the H.E.L.M. has a chance of rewarding you with armor, materials, exotics, and Reckoning weapons. The best strategy for earning Reckoning weapons from fishing is to load up on bait and take a group to whichever fishing spot is recommended on the fishing tackle description in your inventory. If you inspect your tackle you'll see a message like "Increased Activity Detected In Outskirts (EDZ). Head there and fish as much as you can, and hopefully you'll find a few legendary fish you can turn in for your Reckoning weapons.