Destiny 2 fishing guide, Bait farm, and how to increase Focused Fishing

Play the Destiny 2 fishing minigame to cast your line, build up your Focused Fishing bonus, and reel in some fish to get Exotics and Season of the Deep gear. All this Destiny 2 loot is earned after (literally) slam-dunking your caught fish into the HELM’s aquarium receptacle in the new Sonar Station wing – the rarity of your rewards is determined by the rarity of the fish you deposit, ranging from Glimmer and Sonar Station reputation to Legendary Season of the Deep gear or Exotic armor! Here’s everything you need to know about fishing in Destiny 2, including a full list of all the fish, how to farm Bait, and what the Focused Fishing bonus is.

How to go fishing in Destiny 2 Season of the Deep

If you want to start reeling in some fish for loot, you first need to make sure you’ve bought the Season of the Deep Season Pass as the minigame is sadly not available for free-to-play players. With the Season Pass, you now need to complete the first week of the “Into the Depths” seasonal story quest. Once you’ve spoken to Sloane at the holoprojector, you can collect the “Gone Fishin’” quest.

This short quest serves as the tutorial for Destiny 2 fishing and requires you to collect the Fishing Tackle item from Suraya Hawthorne, collect Bait, and catch five fish in the EDZ, Nessus, and the Throne World. You can learn more about getting Bait below but here’s what you need to know about catching fish:

1. Start by finding a Fishing Pond. These only appear in the Outskirts in the EDZ, the Cistern on Nessus, and the Miasma in the Throne World. Be aware that Fishing Ponds will disappear when a Public Event in the same area begins but they will reappear shortly after the event ends.
2. Cast your line by pressing and holding X (Xbox) or Square (PlayStation) while on the fishing platform. Every time you cast your line, you use one Bait, regardless of if you catch something or not. You can fish without Bait, but you’ll be limited to catching lower-rarity fish only.

3. Wait patiently until the lure gets suddenly pulled underwater and your line flashes brightly. As soon as this happens, press X/Square again to instantly reel in the fish. React quickly and you’ll get a Perfect Catch, but if you’re too early or too late, you’ll catch nothing.

4. Your catch will fly out the water, so pick it up and it’ll get stored in your Fishing Tackle in your inventory. You can hold up to 500 fish and hovering the cursor over the tackle will show you exactly how many fish of each rarity you have and where the best fishing spot currently is.

5. Release any fish you catch into the aquarium in the HELM to get rewards and see them in the aquarium tanks! Legendary and Exotic fish will get you seasonal and Exotic gear, so it’s well worth spending time fishing to get loot.

How to get Destiny 2 Bait for fishing

Destiny 2 fishing bait can be earned by completing Salvage activities, Deep Dive missions, Strikes, Crucible matches, Gambit matches, Public Events, and Patrols, and by collecting destination materials. The best way to farm Bait is to complete Destiny 2 Heroic Public Events and Patrols at the same time. Heroic Public Events offer between five and 10 Bait and are quick to complete. Get in a fireteam with friends and you can bash out some Patrols at the same time for even more. Additionally, put on the Perfected Resource Detector Ghost Mod so that you can collect additional Bait from destination materials, such as Destiny 2 Cloud Accretions on Neomuna.

Destiny 2 Focused Fishing bonus

When you start fishing in Destiny 2, you’ll notice the Focused Fishing bonus meter appear on the left of your screen. The meter is filled slightly whenever you or a fellow Guardian catches a Legendary or Exotic fish. As the meter fills each section, more fish will be attracted to the pond, and your chances of catching Legendary and Exotic fish will increase.

The best way to increase your Focused Fishing meter quickly is to get in a fireteam with two others and find a Fishing Pond in the area that is currently the best spot according to the Fishing Tackle. Once you’re fishing, try to get as many Perfect Catches between you as possible to maximize your chances of getting Legendary fish. Keep this up and you should get a lot of good fish.

Perfect Catches don’t directly contribute to the Focused Fishing meter, but they will increase the chances of your fish being of a higher rarity – more Perfect Catches means more Legendary fish, which means filling the Focused Fishing meter, which means even more high-rarity fish!

The Focused Fishing bonus is tied to the whole pond and not each player, so if you briefly leave a pond, you’ll still have the same Focused Fishing bonus – that’s assuming the pond doesn’t de-spawn while you’re away or that you don’t re-instance the location in some way. Whenever a Public Event forces a Fishing Pond to disappear, the Focused Fishing bonus will get removed too and you’ll have to start over from scratch when a new pond appears.

All Destiny 2 Fish

Here’s a list of Destiny 2 fish and critters you can catch, including their rarity and where you can catch them: