Catching void fish in Voidtrain is essential for sustaining your crew, providing organic seeds for garden beds along with leather and fat for crafting. These peaceful creatures drift through the zero-gravity Void in schools and can be gathered manually, snagged with your grappling hook, or targeted with specific fishing modules.
How to Catch Void Fish in the Void
Small void fish travel in peaceful clusters alongside the tracks. Unlike hostile entities, they do not retaliate, but they scatter rapidly when startled. You can catch them using three primary core methods depending on your current gear.
| Method | Best Use Case | Mechanics & Limitations | Drops Obtained |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand Catching | Early game / train stopped | Jump into the Void and press the interact key (E) directly on individual fish in the school | Seeds (regular/strange), Leather, Fat |
| Grappling Hook | Moving train / safe distance | Aim and fire the hook (Hold Left Click) to pull fish directly toward your train platform | Seeds, Leather, Fat |
| Firearms / Shotgun | Fast group clearing | Fire into dense schools; developer notes indicate basic gunfire scares them, making shotguns the only practical gun option | Seeds, Leather, Fat |
Catching by Hand
According to developer insights on the Steam forums, the simplest and most reliable early-game farming method is stopping your train completely.
- Pull the brake lever to bring your trolley or train to a full halt near a passing school.
- Jump off the train into the zero-gravity Void; your safety tether keeps you attached.
- Swim into the cluster using sprint (Shift) and press E on the fish to collect them instantly.
- If a fish is struck or collected, the surviving school will panic and dart erratically. Wait briefly for them to regroup, then resume gathering.
Snagging with the Grappling Hook
Once you research and craft the Grappling Hook at your workbench (requiring a spring, copper pipe, and bolt), you can harvest fish without leaving your train deck. Aim directly at the moving cluster and release the hook. A successful shot reels in the fish instantly, and hitting clustered targets can snag two or three items in a single throw.
Void Fish Drops and Farming Uses
Void fish are the core provider for multiple survival and industrial crafting loops. Harvesting them grants three essential materials:
- Organic Seeds (Regular and Strange Seeds): Planted in garden beds on your wagons. Water them with water condensers or boiled water to harvest organics for kitchen meals like grilled organics. Adding compost to the bed provides a chance to reclaim your planted seeds upon harvest.
- Leather: Used to construct the Gatherer's Bed for Rofleemo crew members, build backpacks to expand inventory space, craft leather suits, and create protective armor plates.
- Organic Fat: Burned directly in the smelter or kitchen furnace for fuel, or refined in the lab workstation into grease and unstable chemicals. Grease is necessary for crafting mechanical components such as forcers and bearings.
Void fish also serve an ecological role: roaming void sharks actively hunt them. When a shark takes damage, it will seek out nearby void fish to consume them and regenerate its health bar. Clearing the schools prevents hostile sharks from recovering during combat.
Void Fishing via the Big Catch DLC
For players using the Big Catch DLC, fishing expands beyond basic resource gathering into a dedicated angling system.
- Visit a Depot: You must stop your train at a depot station to access the train builder console.
- Clear Wall Space: Remove any outer ship walls from the rear wagon platform where you intend to place the module.
- Build the Fishing Station: Open the module menu on the console and place the fishing station onto the open platform.
- Cast in the Void: Once you depart the depot and enter the Void, sit at the fishing station and cast your line using standard resources as bait.
- Spend Scales: Catching void species awards Scales, which can be spent at the fishing station console to unlock rod upgrades (such as fish fatigue to stun catches), decorative cabin themes, and resource reward bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do void fish swim away so quickly when I shoot at them?
Gunfire frightens void fish, causing the entire school to scatter chaotically. The developers confirmed that single-shot weapons like basic revolvers or rifles are ineffective for farming because the loud shots disperse the fish before you can hit more than one. Use your hands, a grappling hook, or a shotgun instead.
Can you get seeds from the void shark?
No. The void shark drops fat, meat, iron, and mutation-based research samples (such as red samples). Organic seeds drop almost exclusively from the small schooling void fish.
Do void fish respawn if you deplete a school?
Yes. Multiple schools drift along the Void pathways periodically. If a school panics and swims out of range, continuing forward or waiting at a stationary stop will bring fresh schools into view.
