// KOTAKU — GAMING
Final Fantasy 14′s Fishing Class Is Technically Pointless, But It’s Spawned A Decade-Long Obsession
When most people think of Final Fantasy XIV’s most dedicated players, they probably think of one of a few archetypes: the players who have maxed out every class, the catgirl-filled roleplay communities, or the 24-person raids packed with so many status effects and particles that they’re genuinely overwhelming. But, for a small but dedicated community of players, there’s an unlikely chunk of side content that’s considered the real endgame: fishing.
Aside from its combat classes, FFXIV has a few side disciplines: things like carpentry, botany, and alchemy. Its fishing class has been part of the game since launch, and it’s especially fleshed out. FFXIV has well over 1,500 fish to catch, and its fisher class unlocks access to Ocean Fishing, a duty that’s basically just a very laidback raid.
But FFXIV’s fishing system isn’t just really, really massive. It’s also incredibly complicated! Instead of a simple fishing minigame that mirrors the classics like Stardew Valley’s, FFXIV’s fishing leans heavily into the game’s MMO qualities. To fish, you’ll need to unlock and utilize 41 hotbar buttons alongside different gear. Also, some fish are only available during certain windows, and many have requirements for weather conditions, bait, and status effects. Some even have prerequisite fish that need to be caught first and then “mooched,” or used as bait.
The thing about FFXIV’s fisher class, though, is that it’s not technically useful in the grand scheme of things. Other gathering classes can collect resources that can be turned into valuable gear by crafting classes. Yes, there are a few recipes that can be cooked with the fish caught in the game, but other than that, FFXIV’s fish mostly just exist for achievement hunters, completionists, and people who want a neat little fish tank in their in-game houses. Despite being largely disconnected from the main goals of FFXIV, though, fishing is a mechanic that a lot of people just find endearing enough to get hooked. “I’ve always been a biology nerd—especially for native wildlife. As a kid [I] spent most of my time outdoors exploring, hunting for critters—mostly fish, reptiles, amphibians—which also developed fishing into a real-life hobby,” fisher Emiach Raethwind said. “As I got into fantasy roleplaying games, I was thrilled to find that so many of them have a fishing component, and FFXIV takes the crown for me with its engaging system.”
But a lot of these players who came solely to fill out their fishing logs realized that FFXIV’s fishing actually offers several massive challenges that require a lot of math, collaboration, and creativity to complete. Basically, players come for the cool little fish and stay for the decade-spanning collaborative statistics research project.
“There is so much nuance in how players can approach fishing in this game,” ChaosComposer, another fisher, said. “At the end of the day, it is RNG, yes, but the game provides so many options to help us increase the odds and push RNG in our favor which, as a statistics major, was a very appealing form of skill expression to me.”
FFXIV’s fishing system is fairly enigmatic, but quite a few of its players have still caught every fish in the game. Of course, there’s no better way to celebrate the community’s dedication to completion than an aquarium, which is exactly what a team of fishers started with a house that shows off every single aquarium fish in the game: the Eorzean Aquarium.
Fruity Snacks, who’s likely the most well-known fisher in FFXIV, founded the Eorzean Aquarium in 2022 thanks to a pretty clever workaround. Unfortunately, in-game apartments and houses can only hold a few aquariums, so players have never been able to display more than a handful of fish at a time. However, Free Companies (the game’s player guilds) are able to purchase houses and offer individual rooms to Free Company members, and these rooms each have their own tank limits. Each Free Company can have up to 512 rooms, and since the limit i