Are seasonal fish worth the hassle?

[YesterdaysLemon]

The fish I am referencing specifically the scorching sunfish and ice bream; I’d like the idea of having a better, shorter-lived thermal stone in my pocket, and I’ve tried to search out to find in the swell oceans to no luck after 4 days out at sea, at that point I’ve given up and I’ve thought to myself, “Is it worth all this hassle for one fish when I could just use my old thermal stone and easily burn a tree or have a snow Chester?”

Maybe I just have terrible luck, or I have not stayed long enough to find them, yes, I have been searching for them in their respective seasons, and I don’t like the idea of having to sail to the spots in the hopes to find one of them.

[Dextops]

for wurt yes since if you catch a couple you can cycle through them as an alternative to thermal stone since as wurt it lasts a lot longer any other character ehh

[YesterdaysLemon]

Hm, do you have any advice on how I can increase my odds of finding these fishes? Do I have to fish out the current school to allow the seasonal ones to spawn? Or do they not spawn in with schools of fish that get marked on my map? One last question, the swell is one shade darker than the coast ocean right?

[Duck986]

If I were you, I'd better use some rocks, pickaxes and sewing kits to make and use more thermal stones than would go fishing for ocean fish ever.

[Mr.Tarunio]

1 hour ago, YesterdaysLemon said:

Hm, do you have any advice on how I can increase my odds of finding these fishes? Do I have to fish out the current school to allow the seasonal ones to spawn? Or do they not spawn in with schools of fish that get marked on my map? One last question, the swell is one shade darker than the coast ocean right?

they spawn randomly and you are at the mercy of r n gesus.

[YesterdaysLemon]

Well, now that I’ve got some eyes on this thread, I’ve been told that schools of fish will disappear and be replaced with new ones when I sail away, effectively reloading them, is this true? If so could I exploit this to get those seasonal fishes?

[BezKa]

I mean, that would require you to just sail back and forth. It's way easier to just keep going in one direction until you find one. 

As others said, only Wurt has any benefit from them, unless you want a little firestarter to drop wherever you want.

Keep in mind that catching them will be difficult, made only harder by gnarwails and Rockjaws being much more interested when you're fishing. I don't know if that's just my luck, but every time I go fishing for the same reason (I switch characters so I wanted have the fish for Wurt) these two just never leave me alone. Rockjaws even refuse to fight with me. They just eat all the fish and go search for more.

I'm not sure if in already generated world you can set fish to "more". If yes, you can consider doing that so the schools of fish spawn more often and fill the ocean a little. 

[Cheggf]

Seasonal fish are great if you are on a boat or are Wurt.

[QuartzBeam]

Are you playing Wurt? Then, yes, without question. With Wurt's fish spoilage modifier, Scorching Sunfish will give you 5 days of heating in Winter and 4 days of heating in Spring (effectively rendering you immune to wetness), while the Ice Bream will give you 3 days of cooling in Summer. In other words, 2 of each fish allows Wurt to completely ignore seasons.

 

Are you on a boat? Also, yes. You're gonna be right next to a Tin Fishin' Bin at all times, so the fish's short shelf life is inconsequential and you can sail in winter or summer without needing fuel for your (endothermic) firepit or space for it. (Of course, for summer, you can achieve the same effect with two Thermal Stones and an Icebox.)

 

Are you doing neither of the above? Then, it's a bit trickier. While it's true that no other character can get as much mileage out of the thermal fish as Wurt can, I find they can still be very, very useful. They're just somewhat more situational.

For one, you practically need an Insulated Pack to use the fish (on land) as anyone besides Wurt, which means you need to kill Bearger in the 2nd Autumn or luck out with the Loot Stash in the 1st Winter. Using the Insulated Pack and taking the seasonal spoilage modifiers into account, the Scorching Sunfish can provide 2.5 days of heating in Winter and the Ice Bream can provide 1.6 days of cooling in Summer.

For reference, to achieve the same results without the fish, you would need a Beefalo Hat and a Puffy Vest for Winter or an Eyebrella and a theoretical tier 1 insulation body item (alas, there's only the tier 2 Summer Frest and the tier 3 Floral Shirt); and in both cases, you would have to overheat/freeze yourself first to last that long. Whereas with an Insulated Pack and a thermal fish, you can get the same freedom, while keeping 7 backpack slots and your head slot completely free. (Disclaimer: this does not take into account the ability to burn stuff on the go for warmth in winter, or the Snow Chester strat for summer, though the latter is only really good for singleplayer.)

More importantly, once the fish gets close to spoiling, you have to go back to the Tin Fishin' Bin and swap it out for a fresh one before it's too late. And that essentially "tethers" you to your base (or wherever you keep the fish). Whether or not that's a dealbreaker depends entirely on your particular playstyle. Personally, I don't go on long trips frequently enough for this to be a problem. If I spend a lot of time away from base, it's usually cause I am sailing (see above) or in the ruins in summer (where the is no overheating anyway).

 

Last but not least, in all 3 of the above cases, I would really recommend cranking up the ocean fish spawn rate in the World Settings, to ease down on the hair pulling. :P