No Man’s Sky Fan Art Inspired Latest Update That Finally Adds Fishing to the Game [IGN]

Following the release of No Man’s Sky’s Worlds Part 1 update and its new water technology, Hello Games has today, September 4, released the Aquarius update, which finally adds fishing to the long-running space sim.

This fishing feature was inspired by a piece of fan art, below, that shows the player’s avatar fishing while sitting on their spaceship. It was published by redditor catador_de_potos with the thread title: “I’m a simple man with a simple dream.”

“Something folks really loved in the Worlds update was the new water technology, tons of players were posting videos of themselves just chilling at the water’s edge,” Hello Games boss Sean Murray said.

“One piece of fan art in particular stopped us in our tracks, of a player lazily fishing from their wing of their boat. That inspired our next update Aquarius – where we finally add fishing to No Man’s Sky!”

The Aquarius update adds “a huge array of fish, from common minnows to wild alien catches, each with their own habitat and catching conditions” to No Man’s Sky, Murray said.

You can bait your line to lure in the rarest of fish or trawl the deep for hidden messages in a bottle. There are trophies to earn, fishing logs to complete, and new fishing equipment rewards. There’s even a unique fishing expedition, Murray teased, which sends players on a quest for “the biggest catch of the day.”

New equipment lets you fish in deep water from your personal fishing platform. New Fishing Pots can be used to bait and trap rare catches. You can cook up the catch of the day with new recipe combinations to be discovered.

“My favorite thing is to build a little base on the perfect shoreline, so I can cast my rod whenever the mood takes me,” Murray added.

No Man’s Sky launched in 2016 initially for PC and PlayStation 4 before coming out on Xbox One in 2018, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S in 2020. A Nintendo Switch version followed in 2022. Over the years, Hello Games has issued a long list of major updates, most recently the aforementioned Worlds Part 1. Murray said Worlds resulted in No Man’s Sky’s biggest player numbers in over five years.

Indeed, it’s a busy time for Hello Games, which alongside updates for No Man’s Sky is working on its next game, Light No Fire. It’s about adventure, building, survival and exploration together, set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.