How to catch Stethacanthus in FFXIV

A video guide on catching the highly-technical, and arguably hardest fish in the game… even AFTER Fish Eyes was removed.

0:00 Intro + What to know ahead of time
0:15 Rock Saltfish prep
1:08 Sculptor window starts
1:28 TURN ON COLLECTOR’S GLOVE
2:03 Using Patience I
3:09 Excess Pearl Eye
3:18 Why use Collector’s Glove?
3:52 Sculptor catch
4:18 What to do when Collectable window is up
4:33 Stethacanthus Intuition activated
4:49 Stethacanthus strategy
5:30 Stethacanthus catch

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Stethacanthus
Zone: The Lochs
Fishing Hole: Loch Seld
Bait: Silk Worm (mooch)
Conditions: 16-18 ET

Stethacanthus is most likely the most technical fish to catch in the game; also making it one of the hardest. This is a catch which requires some experience in catching big fish to be fully prepared for. It is HIGHLY recommended that in addition to this experience, you also come prepared with Double Hook, Hi-Cordials and, cast and mooch timers (shown below) and, most importantly, Collector’s Glove.

Prep phase:
The first part of this catch is the Sculptor. Two are required to give the 6 minute Fisher’s Intuition buff to catch Stethacanthus. They are mooched from Rock Saltfish and have a window of 12-18 during Thunderstorms in The Lochs. It is recommended to show up early and use Patience to catch a high-quality (HQ) Rock Saltfish, which you’ll be able to mooch when the Sculptor window opens. Use Powerful Hookset to catch. If you have not done so, TURN ON COLLECTOR’S GLOVE. More on why later.

Sculptor phase:
With your HQ Rock Saltfish, wait until the Sculptor window opens to mooch. You want to Double Hook ANY !!! bite after 23 seconds from mooch cast. If you do not have a cast timer, you can see mine linked below. Sculptor shares a bite and bite-time with Pearl Eye, a far more common !!! bite. It’s not possible to isolate Sculptor from Pearl Eyes, so you’re stuck Double Hooking every !!! bite.

If Mooch II is on cool down, pop Patience I (yes, Patience I) to catch the Rock Saltfish. If it is HQ, then wait until Patience I drops before mooching. Whenever you mooch a Rock Saltfish for Sculptor during this phase, you should always have 400GP available to Double Hook.

To sum up: Mooch Rock Saltfish into !!! bites and Double Hook the !!! bites. If Mooch II is on cool down, use Patience I to get the Rock Saltfish, but do not mooch until it falls off!

Collector’s Glove “trick”
The reason you want Collector’s Glove up when catching Sculptor is because Sculptor is a collectable, and as such, when caught with the Collector’s Glove buff, the game will ask if you want to catch it as a collectable. If you press yes, you will get ONE of the collectable fish, even if you double hook it. If you press NO, though you’ll get a normal fish, or TWO if you double hooked. This window doesn’t have a time limit on it, so you are able to hold two Sculptors for as long as you are connected to the game.

Intuition Phase
Once you have the Collectables Window up, you have a couple options. If you are going NOT going to have most of your GP back or Mooch II or your hi-cordials off cooldown, you can wait until the next Eorzean day, 16:00 to select NO and activate the intuition. If you don’t have the time to wait 70 minutes for an whole Eorzean day, OR you have enough GP and your Mooches and Cordials aren’t too far off from being active, you can activate the intuition by pressing NO on the collectables window if it is close to 16:00 Eorzea time. I would NOT recommend popping intuition for a partial window (ie, after 16:00).

Which ever you choose, whenever you are ready to activate the intuition, select NO. This will give you two Sculptors and the Stethacanthus intuition.

Stethacanthus is a standard mooch fish off of Rock Saltfish. Just like before, use Powerful Hookset if necessary to catch Rock Saltfish. When you get one, Mooch which whatever mooch is active and available. Patience II is fine to use here if your GP can manage it. You only need to use Patience if Mooch II is on cool down. Stethacanthus is a !!! bite, so use Powerful Hookset to catch.

Conclusion
This is a bit of a technical and involved fish. Just remember:
Double Hook any !!! bite with collectors glove on to get Sculptors.
Press NO to gathering Sculptor as a collectable when Stethacanthus window is up to get the Intuition.
Use Patience to mooch Rock Saltfish when Mooch II is on cooldown during intuition.

Cast Timer Macro: https://pastebin.com/vvyciqJR

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