Stellar Blade’s action gameplay is not where one would look to find a relaxing side quest like fishing. While a lot of the side content is geared toward draining flooded sections of a city or searching for missing expeditioners, swapping out swords for a fishing rod can be a welcome break.

Fishing in Stellar Blade can take a while to unlock, requiring you to progress the story enough to reach the Great Desert. It can be worth taking it on, as it brings an interesting layer of gameplay that’s also rewarding.

Teaching Eve to Fish

It can be a good idea to unlock Fishing Research and Advanced Fishing Research early on, letting you catch larger, rarer fish more easily. Clyde also sells various types of bait, which becomes important when going for specific fish types.

SUGGESTED: How to Access the Forbidden Area in Stellar Blade

Unlocking fishing as a side activity in Stellar Blade is as simple as visiting the NPC Clyde, who provides Eve with fishing gear and supplies. He also hands out your first fishing side quest Looking Glass. Catching fish from here on rewards you with Fishing Points that you can use to purchase rewards from Clyde.

Note that larger fish types require a special type of bait called Fantastic Bait which is only available after the side mission Where’s the Fantastic Bait? which in turn unlocks only after you complete all other fishing-related missions.

How to Fish in Stellar Blade

At your first fishing site, simply equip a fishing rod from your Combat Consumables Wheel, select bait using the down d-pad arrow, and flick your left analog stick back and forth to launch the rod. You will feel a slight vibration when a nearby fish is about to be hooked. Press R2 as soon as you are prompted to hook the fish!

SUGGESTED: 5 Tips and Tricks for Stellar Blade to Make You a Naytibas Slaying Beast

Once a fish is hooked, you must alternate between reeling it in and overpowering it.

Overpowering the fish requires you to hold the left analog stick away from you while mashing the square button to deplete the bar. The timing can vary based on the fish so be ready for that.

Reeling a fish in requires a more refined touch. You must press R2 with the right pressure to fill a bar above the fish until the reel is successful. Too much pressure and you risk losing the fish!

The research skills you unlock with Clyde can be a huge boon here, making both overpowering fish and reeling them in a lot easier.

And that’s how you can get started with fishing in Stellar Blade to follow a whole chain of side quests and obtain the Ocean Maid Costume alongside other rewards. Just pick it up from Clyde once the collection is complete.

There’s a lot to do in Stellar Blade besides fishing. You could look at helping a certain scavenger in the Wasteland, for instance. Or perhaps the Flooded Commercial Sector in Eidos 7 has caught your interest?