I finally got around to getting the Catch and from my experiences I think I can provide some insights for you guys who were like me and didn't bother fishing for it yet. But even if you did already get this weapon (that the Genshintubers are calling the best 4* Polearm sometimes even better than some 5*s) well who's to say MiHoYo won't provide another 4* through this mechanic in the future? We're already getting a new thing to fish for after all.
Ok so first thing's first. The routine. Fans of my content should know I'm a casual f2p player so the major characteristic of that is needing to be efficient at saving time while putting in the least amount of effort to get things done. I am still only AR45 (+1 million exp on top) because it lets me hang out on World 5 where the enemies are much squishier while the drops aren't really any worse than the higher ARs. (Guaranteed 5* drop from World Bosses and the very rare chance of getting 6 5* drops from Weekly Bosses.)
Fishing was a problem. It eats up time to play through the little minigame and the fish spawn randomly. So to minimize the time needed I built up a routine. Fish refresh every 3 days after you catch them. Your crops in the Homeworld are on the same clock. So sync it together. On the next day that you can collect your crops and plant new ones add fishing to your session. Now you can go into your map to see if your crops are ready but a trick I use so it flows better is I park myself at somewhere like the Narukami Shrine when I'm done doing my morning session. There's a patch of grass to the left of the shrine where there's 1 Naku Weed. So on the day I collect my crops I'll grab that weed. Regional Specialties respawn every 2 days so it isn't perfect but it's an easy way to remind you that your crops are ready.
So now you know when the fish will be back in your ponds. Where do you go? So this is where you look up what you need to catch for the Catch.
The Raimei should be the easiest to get but it's also going to take the longest each time to get to. First head over to Inazuma.
You'll need to go to the teleport waypoint circled in red on the picture above. Then get into your Waverider and do a U-turn. As you get closer to the fishing point you'll notice Cryo slimes. Head to the right of them and the boxes floating in the water. This should mean you'll be far enough not to trigger them. Head for the broken mast and glide to the tiny platform. You'll immediately spawn an Electro Abyss Mage and you'll have to to kill it. Do your best not to fall into the water because it's electrified. Once you're done you'll need the game to be on night to spawn in the fish.
From what I've seen your usual spawn will only have about 4 but if you use the rod from the fishing event or you have the Inazuma special rod you have a pretty good chance of getting 2 for some of these catches. (Or what happened to me is that since I didn't start fishing until now my first time there spawned 7 fish and 3 of them gave me double so I ended up with 10 right away.)
These guys are trickier to catch but that just means it'll take more time. You should still be able to get it and even if you don't the first time the fish don't despawn so just try again.
Next are the other 4 fish. As you can see from the picture you only need 2 kinds of bait. So make 20 of the worms and then 120 of the purple things. Each time you make bait you get 10 so you're really just making 2 and 12 which is a good thing because the purple things cost more rare items. I start in Mondstadt and end in Inazuma or you can start with the Raimei and follow that up with Inazuma into Mondstadt.
Either way it'll be a pretty straightforward line through. Let's go with the Mondstadt path. So you start off at the waypoint near the Anemo Hypostasis. Head for the pond in front of you towards the right. You'll find Koi. Next teleport right outside the city. Head right and you'll hit another Koi pond. From there turn left and head alongside the water until you get to the Springvale waypoint. (or teleport if you're internet is fast enough. I use Mona and it gets me there faster.) Off of the teleport it'll be behind you and to the left where the hill is. This pond has Pufferfish. Next teleport to the beach near Dawn Winery. Turn left and stay along the coast until you see the small island. You want to swim to the left side of that island. (Again Mona or Ayaka would be a big help.) This one also has Pufferfish as does the next one. Teleport to Qingce and turn around. Run off the cliff and glide to the wooden logs sticking out of the water. You want the two logs together on the right side. Off of that teleport to the point across the bridge from Guili Plains. If you do your Ley Lines this one should be familiar because there's a Leyline with a Cryo Whopperflower and Electro Cicin Mage. Head for the bridge and get to the middle on the driftwood. You'll find Koi there. Next teleport to the double 1-time Domain that gives you the Shrine keys and use the current to fly to the top. Turn right and you should see another point for more Koi. Finally head for Liyue the waypoint closest to Katheryne. Go straight to the docks all the way to the far right end. Jump off the pier and swim for shore towards the left. At the furthest point is another Pufferfish pond. So now you're done with the mainland so teleport to the Ritou docks. Head in and the first left you'll find some Lavender Melons. At the end of that you'll find more Pufferfish. Lastly go to Nazuchi Beach. Head right and near the small shipwreck are more Pufferfish.
Then you go and get your Raimei afterwards. So if you do Raimei first just do all of that in reverse. I was able to get this done in 4 sessions or about 2 weeks. Or you can Co-op with your friends that already got the Catch/don't care.
Important: Also be aware of Furnishing Fish. If you see the fish hopping up out of the water don't catch that fish. It's a furnishing and if you catch it the only thing you can do with it is put it in your Homeworld.
And this method should help you save the most time in case MiHoYo decides to throw another one of these our way. Also don't over catch. You can only get 1 copy of the Catch and its 4 Refinement mats. You cannot keep buying them.
I'm hoping these extras will come up again for a future weapon. [emoji]
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Now it's time for me to complain about my internet again. Feel free to ignore the rant below.
A pro tip for fishing is to throw your line a little ahead of the fish you're trying to catch. That's because they all have "surprise" hitboxes so if you land your line too close to one it'll shock them and instead of biting it'll just freak out and swim around a bunch and waste your time. BUT if you have stupid internet you might find that your line kinda flies towards the fish anyway even if you point it away. So I thought "maybe I'll just point it a little further than that! But often that'll throw it into never never land and no fish is even going to notice its there.
FINE so I cast the line and just hope and here you see I have the line perfectly. The fish is swimming in the direction of the line and it should bite. Problem is my internet is doing something where it's not transmitting consistently enough so the game doesn't register that the line is right in range of any of these guys so they just swim on through the hook! Several times! [emoji]
At least the RNG gods of MiHoYo were nice enough that when I finally caught them they each gave me 2. That's why I have 11 more than I need. lol (I caught an additional 5 last time because I made too many worm baits and I thought if one day I wanted a second Catch I might as well get a head start. Silly me. [emoji])
Hope this guide helped and fingers crossed that it comes in handy for the next fishing weapon!
Tips and Tricks from a Super Casual Genshin f2p
