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An image from No Man's Sky of the player fishing on an orange planet. This player is resting in a floating fishing dock.
Image via Hello Games.

How to find and catch anomalous fish in No Man’s Sky

Catching anomalous fish can be a confusing task to complete in No Man's Sky.

If you’re trying to complete the Cursed Expedition Redux in No Man’s Sky, chances are you’re struggling to catch four anomalous fish in the third phase of the questline. The Expedition, which has a quest called “In Wine Dark Seas,” has some confusing conditions you must meet first.

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If you want to catch some anomalous fish while exploring the universe in NMS, check out the tutorial below.

Where to catch anomalous fish in No Man’s Sky

An image from No Man's Sky of a planet named Redacted, which is from the Cursed Expedition. This planet spawns Anomalous Fish.
Tuwanl Akkan is a planet that spawns anomalous fish. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Technically, there is no such thing as anomalous fish in NMS. Instead, you can fulfill this quest by catching any fish on anomalous worlds. To find an anomalous planet, you must be in the third phase of the Cursed Expedition.

During this portion of the quest, you’ll take a portal to a new star system filled with various planets. Among these locations is a planet named Tuwanl Akkan, which is labeled as a “REDACTED” planet. This is the only planet where you can catch anomalous fish and complete the quest.

Fly down to a body of water on this planet and prepare your fishing rod and bait to catch these anomalous sea creatures. If you’re playing in multiplayer then you can always travel to player bases in good fishing locations, which are marked by purple icons while flying through the planet’s atmosphere. Players will typically make bases in areas where there is high fish activity.

How to catch anomalous fish in No Man’s Sky

Fishing in No Man's Sky from first person view
To catch anomalous fish, you’ll need a fishing rig and bait. Image via Hello Games

You can only catch anomalous fish while in the Cursed Expedition and under the effects of reality erasure. While completing quests in the Cursed Expedition, you’ll notice that your shield bar has been replaced by a purple bar that steadily depletes.

Think of this purple bar as your character’s sanity, and once it drops below a set amount, Boundary Horrors will spawn and try to attack you. While this is happening, you’ll have a higher chance of catching anomalous fish in any body of water on the “REDACTED” planet.

To fish in NMS, you’ll need to unlock the fishing rig recipe and bring bait to catch fish. You can unlock and craft the fishing rod aboard the Anomaly at the Multitool vendor by spending Salvaged Data. You can craft this multitool attachment with the following materials:

  • 3 Carbon Nanotubes
  • 1 Di-Hydrogen Jelly
  • 60 Chromatic Metal

Fishing in NMS works similarly to other games where you cast your rod into a body of water and wait for fish to nibble. When a fish bites your line, you’ll see a large splash in the water that signals you to reel in your fresh catch.

Since most fish on an anomalous planet are considered anomalous fish, you won’t need a specific bait. You can use any of the following materials to catch an anomalous fish:

Lure typeCrafting recipe
Bionic Lure2 Amino Chamber
3 Ion Battery
3 Lubricant
Dangling Orb1 Solar Mirror
1 Metal Plating
65 Sodium Nitrate
Magpulse Lure1 Magnetic Resonator
1 Metal Plating
90 Tritium
Mealworms120 Condensed Carbon
Shadow Lure2 Antimatter
1 Metal Plating
40 Cyto-Phosphate
Spicy Chum80 Mordite
25 Phosphorus
90 Di-hydrogen

Whenever you craft any type of lure, you’ll always make 20 from a single use of the recipe. Simply equip any of these lure types while on the redacted planet, and get to fishing. While completing the objective may take a couple of minutes, eventually you’ll catch enough anomalous fish and move on to the next stage of the Cursed Expedition.


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Author
Image of John Wildermuth
John Wildermuth
John is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles and wields a degree in English. He is constantly staying up to date on the latest and greatest games, and has been writing about gaming for over a year now. When he is not playing games, he can be found reading sci-fi and fantasy books or working on ceramics.