Fishing zone

Fishing zone

Create an area where your hunters will fish. Must be placed over water containing fish. Larger bodies of water are generally better for fishing.

Base Stats

Type

Zones

Building

Size

1 × 1

Placeable

True

Blocks Wind

False

Creation

Required Research

Fishing

A fishing zone designates where fisher pawns can catch fish. They are the main source for fish such as salmon and marlin. Fishing also occasionally allows fisher pawns to reel in treasures such as drugs.

Acquisition

Fishing zones can be designated once the Fishing research project is finished. New Tribe starts will start with it researched.

Summary

Colonists will fish on a free tile of the fishing zone as part of the Fish job in the Work tab. Their productivity is governed by the Animals skill, through the Fishing Speed and Fishing Yield stats. You can only create fishing zones in shallow non-toxic water with a population of fish. All fish in the body of water share a single population count, which replenishes at a rate of 2.5% of the maximum population per day provided there's no Gill Rot event.

After completing around 7,500 ticks (2.08 mins)^[Verify] of work, the following possible outcomes are rolled in order:

1. 2% chance of a negative fishing outcome. Skipped if the last negative outcome on this map was less than 300,000 ticks (5 in-game days) ago, or if none of the fish present are capable of producing negative outcomes. Fish that can cause negative outcomes include piranha, guppies, and marlins.
2. 0-60% chance of catching a batch of toxfish depending on the pollution level.
3. 1% chance of a rare catch. Similar to the negative fishing outcomes, the rare catch roll is skipped if the time since the last rare catch was less than 300,000 ticks (5 in-game days).
4. 5% chance of catching a batch of uncommon fish. Skipped if there is no uncommon fish in the body of water.
5. If none of the above are rolled, a batch of common fish is caught. If toxfish are present as a common fish, they have a further chance to be chosen here.

The size of the batch is determined by the fishers Fishing Yield, and a 1x-6x multiplier based on the fish population (max at 300 fish pop). If fish are caught, the fish population is reduced by the size of the batch.

Animals cannot receive negative or positive fishing outcomes. On top of that, animals are only able to catch toxfish and any other common fish, but not uncommon fish. They'll also fish up as many fish as they need to fill their hunger, but no more.

Graphs

Fish population multiplier

The base amount of fish for a given biome (including certain tile features), is further modified by amount of water tiles:

Rare catches

Fishing rare catches offer a large variety of items, the majority of which are available in all biomes, with a small number only available in some biomes.

Biome-independent items

The most common items are maps, followed by books and drugs.

Biome-related items

These items are only present in specific biome subsets:

• Hot: arid shrubland, desert, extreme desert, grassland, lava field
• Cold: boreal forest, cold bog, tundra, ice sheet, sea ice, glacial plain
• Temperate: temperate forest, temperate swamp
• Tropical: tropical rainforest, tropical swamp
• Glowforest has its own subset
• Fishing is not possible in the scarlands.

For most biomes, these items are biome-appropriate apparel, animal corpses, and fertilized eggs. In the glowforest it's psilocap and raw fungus.

Fishing rare catch table

A rare catch gives one of the following items:

Item	Randomly picked among	Qty	Chance
			Bs	Ht	Cld	Tmp	Trp	Glf
Human corpse	Pirate gunner, Villager, Drifter	1	6%	5%	4.9%	4.6%	4.6%	4.6%
Human resource	Human meat, Human leather	10-20	4%	3.3%	3.3%	3.1%	3.1%	3.1%
Human organ	Skull, Heart, Lung, Kidney	10-20	4%	3.3%	3.3%	3.1%	3.1%	3.1%
Gravlite panels		15-35	4%	3.3%	3.3%	3.1%	3.1%	3.1%
Unique weapon		1	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Map		1	20%	16.7%	16.4%	15.4%	15.4%	15.4%
Book	Novel, Schematic, Textbook, Tome	1	10%	8.3%	8.2%	7.7%	7.7%	7.7%
Drug	Ambrosia, Beer, Flake, Go-juice, Luciferium, Smokeleaf joint, Wake-up, Yayo	5-12	10%	8.3%	8.2%	7.7%	7.7%	7.7%
Vacstone blocks		30-60	6%	5%	4.9%	4.6%	4.6%	4.6%
Obsidian		50-75	6%	5%	4.9%	4.6%	4.6%	4.6%
Seed	Polux seed , Harbinger seed , Archean seed	1-2	6%	5%	4.9%	4.6%	4.6%	4.6%
Sentience catalyst		1	6%	5%	4.9%	4.6%	4.6%	4.6%
Resource	Hyperweave, Plasteel	10-20	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Advanced components		2-3	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Glitterworld medicine		2-3	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Miscellaneous	Antigrain warhead, Archotech arm, Archotech eye, Archotech leg, Bionic arm, Bionic eye, Bionic heart, Bionic leg, Bionic spine, Bionic stomach, Healer mech serum, Techprof subpersona core	1	4%	3.3%	3.3%	3.1%	3.1%	3.1%
High frequency reward	Advanced component, Marine armor, Marine helmet, Orbital bombardment targeter, Orbital power beam targeter, Psychic animal pulser, Psychic insanity lance, Psychic shock lance, Psychic soothe pulser, Recon armor, Recon helmet, Tornado generator, Biomutation lance , Archite capsule , Deathrest capacity serum , Integrator headset , Mechcommander helmet , Mechlord helmet , Mechlord suit , Cataphract armor , Cataphract helmet , Grenadier armor , Locust armor , Phoenix armor , Prestige cataphract armor , Prestige cataphract helmet , Prestige marine armor , Prestige marine helmet , Prestige recon armor , Prestige recon helmet	1	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Mid frequency reward	Bionic arm, Bionic eye, Bionic leg, Novel, Resurrector mech serum, Schematic, Skilltrainer, Textbook, Tome , Genepack , Map , Vacskin gland , Vacsuit , Vacsuit helmet , Armorskin gland , Eltex helmet , Eltex robe , Eltex skullcap , Eltex staff , Eltex vest , Low-shield pack , Monosword , Plasmasword , Stoneskin gland , Toughskin gland , Zeushammer	1	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Low frequency reward	Charge lance, Doomsday rocket launcher, Grand sculpture, Joywire, Large sculpture, Painstopper, Power claw, Psychic foil helmet, Small sculpture, Triple rocket launcher, Biomutation pulser , Deadlife pack , Ghoul resurrection serum , Juggernaut serum , Metalblood serum , Mind-numb serum , Shard animal pulser , Shard insanity lance , Shard shock lance , Unique hellcat rifle , Void sculpture , Voidsight serum , Terror sculpture , Hunter pack , Pilot assistant , Pilot subpersona core , Sentience catalyst , Shuttle engine , Unique LMG , Unique assault rifle , Unique beam repeater , Unique bolt-action rifle , Unique chain shotgun , Unique charge lance , Unique charge rifle , Unique greatbow , Unique heavy SMG , Unique minigun , Unique revolver , Unique sniper rifle , Aesthetic nose , Aesthetic shaper , Circadian assistant , Circadian half-cycler , Coagulator , Drill arm , Elbow blade , Eltex shirt , Field hand , Gastro-analyzer , Gunlink , Hand talon , Healing enhancer , Immunoenhancer , Knee spike , Learning assistant , Love enhancer , Mindscrew , Neurocalculator , Nuclear stomach , Psytrainer , Reprocessor stomach , Sterilizing stomach , Venom fangs , Venom talon	1	2%	1.7%	1.6%	1.5%	1.5%	1.5%
Animal corpse	Depends on biome: Hot: Iguana, Rat, Vulture , Monitor lizard  Cold: Seal , Arctic fox, Snowhare Temperate: Sparrow , Crow , Porcupine , Squirrel Tropical: Flamingo , Capybara, Cobra, Monkey	1	-	6.7%	4.9%	6.2%	6.2%	-
Apparel	Depends on biome: Hot: Cowboy hat, Duster Cold: Parka, Tuque Temperate: T-shirt, Pants Tropical: Tribal headdress, War mask	1	-	10%	11.5%	9.2%	9.2%	-
Fertilized egg	Depends on biome: Cold: Penguin egg Temperate: Duck egg, Heron egg Tropical: Peacock egg, Flamingo egg, Cobra egg	1	-	-	1.6%	7.7%	7.7%	-
Psilocap		15-20	-	-	-	-	-	15.4%
Raw fungus		40-60	-	-	-	-	-	7.7%

Analysis

Enclosed room made using bridges, allowing fishing in a lake despite the ice.

Fishing is an effective way to get food and occasional resources, especially on harder biomes where farming and hunting is more difficult. It can be done year-round if there is a non-frozen body of water, and its yield is not influenced by temperature. It can also be used as a way to train Animals skill, which is otherwise difficult to train from low levels without tamed animals that can be milked or shorn. It can be performed by children at 3 years old.

However, fishing has two major downsides:

• Fishing takes a lot more work when compared to growing crops. A base colonist with Animals 10 takes around 7,500 ticks (2.08 mins) of work to catch 1 batch of fish,^[Verify] resulting in 6 fish or 1.5 raw nutrition. A base colonist with Plants 8 only takes 1,850 ticks (30.83 secs) of work to sow and harvest 5 rice plants for 30 rice, equating to the same raw nutrition, or 25% the work. This ignores the chance of fish escaping or fishing up non-food items.
• Fishing is limited by the bodies of water available. A standard coastal tile, with ~300 max fish, can permanently sustain around 1-2 colonists with standard meals. More pawns can be sustained for a while, but the fish will eventually run out. Larger bodies of water can provide more fish (1000+ max fish) but the map itself will be restricted by the water.

Fishing does have its advantages: there is no need to wait for crops to grow, it can be done year-round, and it can find rare items. In addition, fishing provides meat. Fishing may be more efficient than using regular animals, especially in biomes where grazing cannot be done year-round. Still, fishing is much less work efficient than growing crops before considering skill.

Note some food can be wasted if used in a nutrient paste dispenser. Nutrient paste requires 0.3 nutrition to make. Fish are worth 0.25 or 0.5 nutrition per item, so if only fish are in the dispenser, the dispenser will round up and consume 0.5 nutrition instead (resulting in the same efficiency as standard meals).

Enclosed fishing

While fresh water will naturally freeze when temperatures are below 0 °C (32 °F), it is still possible to fish. This can be done by creating an enclosed room on top of the lake, building bridges or heavy bridges to support walls, then heating up the room using a campfire or heater. This will melt the ice, enabling access to a full body of water's worth of fish whilst keeping colonists warm.

Ocean water will not freeze, but building such rooms may still be useful to keep colonists warm.

Special events

Gill rot is a fungus that will slowly make the fish decline in population. Low fish populations will make fishing less effective.

Version history

• Odyssey DLC Release - Added.
• 1.6.4528 - Animals specialist increases fishing speed and fishing yield
• 1.6.4566 - Added a separate fishing work type to work tab.