FFXIV Ocean Fishing Guide: Routes, Spectral Currents, and Rewards

Ocean Fishing is the closest thing FFXIV has to a fishing raid. You climb aboard a ship called the Endeavor with up to 23 other fishers, sail out to three fishing spots, and try to rack up as many points as possible in seven minutes at each one. The payoff is generous too: EXP, gatherer scripts, minions, a flying shark mount, and a pile of titles. The catch is that the whole thing runs on a strict clock, so half the skill is just showing up at the right time and knowing which bait to throw.

Boarding the Endeavor and Schedule Basics

First, the unlock. You need the level 1 Fisher quest "All the Fish in the Sea," picked up from Fhilsnoe in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (X:7.8, Y:14.5). Before that, you finish the tiny "My First Fishing Rod" quest, which is the same one that hands you the Fisher job in the first place. As soon as you can hold a rod, you can sail.

Registration is the part that trips people up. Ocean Fishing isn't open whenever you feel like it. A window opens every two hours of real Earth time, and you get 15 minutes to sign up. Talk to Dryskthota on the Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (X:3.0, Y:12.7). When a voyage is coming, she gets a "!" icon, and you can pick "View Sailing Schedule" to see what's next and even set an alarm.

The boat holds 24 players and sails for up to 60 minutes. Once you register, the system matches you with other fishers to fill out a party of eight, or three parties of eight when it's busy. If the queue doesn't fill all 24 spots in time, the ship leaves anyway at the 15-minute mark, so you never get stranded waiting forever.

Each trip visits three fishing spots back to back, and you get seven minutes at each one. One small wrinkle: you can't cast during the last 30 seconds at a stop, so the clock is really about six and a half minutes of actual fishing per location.

Picking a route

When you board, you choose between two routes:

• Indigo Route: the original, sailing waters off the western shores of Eorzea. No expansion required beyond what you already have to unlock the duty.
• Ruby Route: added in patch 6.4, set in the Near East and Far East. The Ruby Price and One River destinations need Stormblood done, and the Thavnair destination needs Endwalker.

That schedule is the whole rhythm of the mode. Miss the window and you wait two real hours for the next boat. The community sites that track the schedule (like oceanfishing.boats and Lulu's Tools) exist for exactly this reason, and a lot of fishers just keep one open in the background.

Spectral Currents and How to Trigger Them

This is where the points live. A spectral current is a special state that swaps the pool of fish at your stop for rarer "spectral" versions. They bite faster and they're worth a lot more. Land one of these and your score jumps in a hurry.

The trigger is simple in concept. Whenever any crew member catches a Spectral Fish, there's a chance it kicks off a spectral current for the whole boat. The more people fishing for the right spectral fish, the better the odds, which is why a full boat matters so much.

The catch is bait. Each stop has one Spectral Fish, and it prefers one specific bait. The table's worth knowing cold:

| Stop | Bait | Spectral Fish | |---|---|---| | Galadion Bay | Plump Worm | Spectral Megalodon | | Rhotano Sea | Plump Worm | Spectral Bass | | Rothlyt Sound | Plump Worm | Spectresaur | | Southern Strait of Merlthor | Krill | Spectral Discus | | Bloodbrine Sea | Krill | Spectral Eel | | Northern Strait of Merlthor | Ragworm | Spectral Sea Bo | | The Cieldalaes | Ragworm | Spectral Butterfly | | Sirensong Sea | Plump Worm | Spectral Coelacanth | | Kugane Coast | Ragworm | Spectral Wrasse | | Ruby Sea | Krill | Spectral Snake Eel | | One River | Krill | Spectral Kotsu Zetsu | | Unnamed Island | Ragworm | Spectral Starfish | | Thavnair Coast | Krill | Spectral Grouper |

The play is to swap to that bait when you arrive at a stop and try to hook the spectral fish fast. The etiquette here is to shout the preferred bait in alliance chat so everyone switches over. More people on the right bait means a much better shot at popping the current for the whole crew.

The timing rules

A few limits decide when you should push for one:

• Only one spectral current can fire per stop. Once it's up, you ride it out.
• You can't trigger one with less than 1:30 left on the stop's clock. After that, even a spectral fish catch won't start a current.
• A spectral current usually lasts two minutes.
• If the current would run past the 0:30 mark, it cuts off at 0:30 and the leftover time carries to your next current, capped at three minutes.
• Skip a stop entirely with no current at all, and the next current you trigger gets bumped to a full three minutes. The proc chance also goes up a bit after a miss.

Blow the first stop and the game softens the landing for the next one, so don't panic. A clean run usually means two or three currents across the trip, and stacking that carried-over time is how people hit huge scores.

Bait and Tackle That Matter

Good news: you only need three cheap baits for most of the trip. Krill, Ragworm, and Plump Worm. They cover the base fishing at every stop and they're what you use to chase the spectral fish too.

Grab all three from the Merchant & Mender standing near Dryskthota in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks (X:3.2, Y:12.8), or from the same merchant on the ship (X:6.1, Y:6.1) if you forget. They run a few gil apiece, so a full stack costs next to nothing. Versatile Lure also works in a pinch if you're totally out.

Reading each stop

The trick is matching bait to stop. As a rule of thumb, the big open-water stops like Galadion Bay, Rhotano Sea, and Rothlyt Sound want Plump Worm. The straits and northern stops lean Krill or Ragworm. The full list is in the spectral table above, and that same bait is usually your best bet for the regular pool too.

During a spectral current, things get a little more finicky. The best bait can shift with the time of day, whether it's day, sunset, or night, which the little sun or moon icon in your score window tells you. Veteran fishers keep bait-by-time charts for exactly this, because throwing the wrong bait in a current means watching a great window bleed points.

The special baits for the Fabled fish

Here's where it gets spicy. Each route hides a handful of "Fabled Legendary" fish, the five-star catches. These need their own bait, and the ship merchant does not sell them. You have to bring them yourself:

| Bait | Catches | |---|---| | Glowworm | Sothis | | Shrimp Cage Feeder | Coral Manta | | Heavy Steel Jig | Elasmosaurus | | Rat Tail | Stonescale, Manasvin | | Squid Strip | Hafgufa, Hells' Claw | | Pill Bug | Seafaring Toad | | Mackerel Strip | Taniwha | | Stonefly Nymph | Jewel of Plum Spring |

These only show up under Fisher's Intuition, so they're an advanced chase. Worth the effort for the achievements and the +20% score bonus a single five-star catch hands you.

Hooks and Patience

Two abilities do the heavy lifting once you know what you're doing. Double Hook and Triple Hook turn one catch into several, and a Triple Hook on the right fish can dump a pile of points at once. The catch: these multipliers don't work on spectral fish or Fisher's Intuition fish. Use them on those and you get one fish and wasted GP. Save them for the normal high-yield catches, or for pumping a fish you're chasing to trigger a current.

Patience, and its bigger version, boosts your chance at high-quality fish for a GP cost. That matters when you're fishing for spectral triggers or setting up an Intuition window. Most high scorers run a loop: cast, hook, use Prize Catch or Identical Cast to repeat a good result, then Double or Triple Hook when they hit a fat catch.

Scoring Big on Each Route

Points decide everything: your scripts, your EXP, and whether you walk away with a mount. You earn points per fish, and bigger, rarer fish are worth more. The score window tracks your running total, your last three catches, and the time left.

The whole game is about stacking multipliers. A flat 5,000 or 10,000 points isn't the ceiling, it's a target you reach with bonuses piled on top of your raw catch points.

The bonus stack

Here's what multiplies your final score:

• Finish missions: one mission done is +5%, two is +10%, all three is +20%.
• Hit point thresholds: 2,500 points gets +10%, 5,000 gets +20%.
• Rarity catches: a four-star fish is +10%, a five-star fish is +20%.
• Fabled Fishers: if your party lands three or more five-star fish, everyone gets +50%.
• Spectral volume: 15 fish caught during a current is +10%, 35 is +20%.
• Favored by Llymlaen: triggering a spectral current is +10% on its own.

Those stack. A clean run that pops two currents, lands a five-star fish, clears 5,000 points, and finishes three missions is sitting on a fat multiplier before you even count the raw points.

Group bonuses

Beyond your personal score, the whole boat can pile up species bonuses. Catch enough of one type and everyone gets a cut:

• 200 sharks: +30% (Certifiable Shark Hunters)
• 250 crabs: +30% (Crab Boat Crew)
• 250 fugu: +30% (Balloon Catchers)
• 350 shellfish: +30% (Maximum Mussel)
• 400 squid: +30% (Squid Squadron)
• 300 prehistoric wavekin: +30% (Prehistoric Professionals)

Sometimes the play isn't the biggest single fish, it's everyone hammering the same species. When the chat says a species bonus is in range, switching bait to feed that counter can pay off more than chasing your own score.

The targets that matter

For most people, the two numbers to chase are 5,000 and 10,000 points on a single voyage. Five thousand gets you the Major-General minion on the Indigo route. Ten thousand gets you the Hybodus mount. Hitting those means riding every spectral current hard, Triple Hooking the right fish inside them, and not wasting time on junk catches.

Indigo routes tend to have the higher single-run ceiling, which is why the mount and the headline minion both live there. Ruby routes average a touch higher across a lot of runs, partly because the species bonuses are easier to feed. Either way, the scoring formula rewards you for staying active the whole trip and switching bait the second a current pops.

Mounts Minions and Titles You Can Earn

The rewards are the reason most people grind this. Every voyage hands out EXP, which is great for leveling Fisher from 1 to 100. At level 50 and up you start earning Purple Gatherers' Scripts, and at level 100 you pick up Orange Gatherers' Scripts too, but only on catches that needed Fisher's Intuition. You need the quest "Inscrutable Tastes" done before scripts show up at all.

Abandon the trip early and you get nothing, so always let it finish.

The headline prizes

The shark stuff is the famous part:

• The Major-General: a walking shark minion. Earn it by scoring 5,000 points in a single Indigo voyage.
• Hybodus: a flying shark mount, one of the most iconic in the game. It's the reward for cracking 10,000 points on a single Indigo voyage.

Push the Indigo route further and the titles stack up. Sixteen thousand points in one run earns the "Ocean Fisher" title, and twenty thousand earns "Master of the Sea."

The Ruby route has its own prize ladder. Ten thousand points in a single Ruby voyage gets you the Mossasaurus minion. Sixteen thousand earns "Doom of the Deep," and twenty thousand earns "South Sea Scourge."

Then there's the long-game title. Earn three million cumulative points across all your voyages and you get "World-class Troller." That one takes a while.

Bonus minions

A bunch of minions drop from the group bonus achievements, so you pick them up naturally by playing a lot and feeding those species counters:

• Octopus Traveler, Shark Hunter, Jellyfish Fanatic, Sea Dragoon
• Balloon Catcher, Deadliest Catcher, Manta Maniac
• Gull (for running into seagull flocks) and Dolphin Calf (for dolphin pods)

These aren't tied to a score requirement. Show up, fish, and they trickle in over time.

A note on the catch logs

If you're the completionist type, every stop has two log entries: the normal fish and the spectral-current-only fish. Catching every species at a stop, in both states, checks off the "Denizens" and "Specters" achievements. There are thirteen stops now, with Thavnair and the Unnamed Island being the newest pair added in patch 7.5, so the full log is a real project.

Pick a route, learn its three stops and their spectral bait, ride every current you can, and the points, and that shark mount, tend to follow.