Fishing for Fortunes

I like fishing mini-games. They are almost always rather quiet and peaceful. It’s a chance to stop, take a break and, well, catch some fish. And by catching fish, we can slowly accumulate fortunes, much more money than you would think.

My original fishing experiences come from Minecraft. Originally, fishing was genuinely slow and bad. You could only catch fish or random junk. That was only ever on vanilla Minecraft though. Many survival multiplayer servers however had plugins or mods that would make things more interesting. One of the earlier servers I played on, the more you used a tool to do a specific job, the better the tools became.This also applied to fishing.

Basically, I had so much experience on this server, that I was regularly fishing up enchanted books, chests and diamonds, all of which I sold to other players. This was all on one server. Vanilla Minecraft though took the better loot and ran with it, adding special enchantments to fishing rods so you can fish up more loot. Fishing was eventually nerfed a bit, but it was still insanely useful.

My most recent fishing experience has been in the Sea of Thieves. Of course there is fishing, we’re out in the middle of the sea. However fishing is a bit of a slow process. It’s a tad more realistic, in which you need more patience, but it’s still enjoyable. You basically have to just tire the fish out, then reel it in when it’s stopped moving. Luckily, you can fish pretty much anywhere, on islands and on your ship. Even if the Stormcloud is moving at insane speeds, you can happily keep on fishing, no matter how fast everyone else is moving.

In Warframe however, our method of fishing is actually spear fishing. We wait for fish to appear, then stab the fishy bastards with a long, pointy stick. The only downside is that sometimes baddies show up to ruin your day. Luckily we have the likes of Ivara and Wukong to keep us safe.

However, despite all these different fishing styles, it turns out that patient fishing can make you good money. Or in Warframe’s and Sea of Thieves’ case, good standing too.

When the Plains of Eidolon came out, I levelled up by mostly fishing during the night. I’d go to a small pond near the entrance to Cetus, kill the local Grineer who wouldn’t leave me alone, then spend hours fishing for Mortus Lung Fish, before heading back, making bait for Murkray, then selling all the fish for good standing. Sure, it wasn’t the fastest way to level up, but it sure was peaceful. I tried to do the same in the Orb Vallis, but mining for gems and doing conservation rewarded more standing.

In the Sea of Thieves however, there is an entire group that will happily buy your fish from you. The only downside is that the Hunters all want you to cook your fish first, to get maximum revenue. This sucks because, not only is cooking fish pretty damn slow, but it also completely removes the pretty colours on the fish themselves. And a lot of fish are very pretty when they are uncooked.

Still, it’s a harmless way to make money. Well, uh, not harmless. All those fish are dead. But at least you don’t need to kill any people to sell your fish.

You know what’s the weirdest thing though? I have never actually gone fishing in real life. The most I have ever done is tie a piece of bread to some string while on a school trip to the northen coast. I’ve never actually even tried to fish properly.

Maybe at some point I’ll give it a go. But in the meantime, I guess I’ll just continue fishing in video games. At least then, I can guarantee that I’ll catch something good…