Fishing Is The New Shooting In ‘Destiny 2’

Destiny 2

They say you’re not really a true MMO until you have a fishing minigame, and by that definition, Destiny 2 now qualifies.

At the tail end of the Destiny 2 Season of the Deep trailer hours before launch, Bungie revealed that the water-based season would also bring with it…actual fishing. While at first I thought this might be a fun throwaway game like soccer at the Farm or the Tire Game on the Moon, it is actually…a legitimate part of the season and the primary source of loot for an entire slate of weapons. Wait, what?

Yes, Bungie has made fishing a primary source of reprised weapons from The Reckoning. You can turn in low-tier fish of uncommon, rare and legendary rarity for some glimmer and shards, but exotic fish? Those will get you actual Reckoning weapons, which cannot be crafted, and are only random rolls.

How does fishing work? As fishing minigames go, it's pretty simplistic, but relaxing and a break from the frenetic pace of the rest of the game. After the first mission you’ll get a fishing tackle box, and then you can go to various spots in the EDZ, Nessus (where fish live in radialoria) and Savathun's Throne World (where fish live inside the inter-dimensionally constructed swamp of a Hive god) to cast your line.

It's basic. You use bait (gained in mass quantities from essentially any activity in the game) and then throw the line out. You wait until it dips under the surface then you hit the button to fling the fish out. Time it right for a Perfect Catch and you’ll have a better chance at a higher rarity fish. There's no "reeling" mechanic, no chance for the fish to escape. It's kind of just a fish slot machine.

Destiny 2

The other way to swing things in your favor is the Focused Fishing buff, which increases the more you and other fishermen at the spot stay there and fish. The higher the buff goes, the better rarity fish will show up, including more of a chance at this rare exotics to get you actual loot.

My biggest problem with fishing is that it's crafted like a public event, not like a static spot you go. And what that means every time there is an actual public event in that zone, the fishing spot evaporates for the entire duration of that event. That means A) you have to sit around doing nothing and wait for the event to finish if you want to keep fishing (or I suppose you could go do the event, but I’m here to fish, not to shoot) and B) you lose whatever Focused Fishing buff you’ve built up and have to start over again later. Maybe that's on purpose as Bungie doesn't want people max-level fishing for hours, but I’ve found it frustrating.

After you have a bunch of fish you can go bank them like motes in the HELM where you’ll get your rewards. There are also fun bonuses with the fishing system, like you can find hidden additions for your fish tank like glowing coral, and if you look inside the big tank you can see items from past seasons. I think there's a way to feed the fish? I’m not sure.

So yeah, fishing. It's incredibly simplistic but as relaxing as I imagine real fishing is (I have never gone fishing). And it's not just a dumb time-waster it's also a loot farm. How about that?

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