How to fish in Horizon Forbidden West

To catch fish in Horizon Forbidden West, you don’t need to use special tools like a fishing rod or fishing net. But it does help a lot if you have the diving mask — which you can get during the Sea of Sands quest — as you’re going to need to chase after the fish underwater and catch them by hand.

The first things you need to know about fishing in Horizon Forbidden West are that not every body of water in the game has fish in it and that you can’t catch every fish you see. The best place to catch fish is in the sea on the western side of the map, but some of the larger inland bodies of water also contain fish you can catch. To determine which fish can actually be caught, use your Focus. If your focus does not highlight a fish in yellow, then you cannot catch that fish. Any fish that does highlight in yellow when you use your Focus though, can be caught. These fish include carp, moonfish, bass, and salmon.

Related: All Hunting Ground Locations in Horizon Forbidden West

Once you’ve found a catchable fish, dive underwater and start chasing it. Use L3 to swim faster, and tap Circle to give yourself a speed boost. When you’re close enough to a fish, you’ll see a prompt to press Triangle to catch it, so press Triangle quickly. Fish in Horizon Forbidden West have an odd habit of vanishing when you get really close to them, so we suggest tapping Circle to get close, then immediately mashing Triangle to be sure you get the fish during the brief window of opportunity.

Some players have reported being able to kill fish by shooting them when they’re swimming in shallow water, but we’ve seen no proof of this and were unable to do it for ourselves.