The Drylands is a desert region in Fisch where most catches sit buried under the sand instead of swimming in open water. Finishing its Bestiary means logging every entry across the region’s dunes, oases, and rain-fed pools, and the main obstacle is gear rather than luck. Several species will not bite unless you fish the sand with the right rod and attachment.
Quick answer: Teleport to Fischfest 2 with the Magic Conch, walk behind the Sand Castle to reach the Drylands at GPS (-24497, 2683, -5386), craft the Marrow Rod from Paleontologist Petri, and equip the Sand Sifter to fish the dunes. Use a regular rod for the oasis and flooded Claypan water. Every catch is Summer-only except the Dune Relic.
How to reach the Drylands
The Drylands sits right next to the Heart of the Island, beside the Fischfest 2 area, so the fastest way in is to teleport there first. Open your Magic Conch, select Fischfest 2, and head toward the Sand Castle once you spawn.
Walk around and behind the Sand Castle, and the arid Drylands zone opens up ahead. The entry point is GPS (-24497, 2683, -5386). From there you will find sandy dunes, small oases, and low pools that fill during rain.
Marrow Rod and the Sand Sifter for sand fishing
Water catches in the Drylands work with any regular rod. The oases and the rainwater that collects in the Claypans behave like normal fishing spots, so no special gear is needed there.
The fish buried in the dunes are the problem. To pull those out you need the Marrow Rod, which you craft after completing the quest from Paleontologist Petri. Petri stands on the Drylands at GPS (-23924, 2696, -6213), and the quest tasks you with collecting three separate parts before the rod is assembled.
Once the Marrow Rod is built, equip the Sand Sifter to cast straight into the sand. You can also apply the Dune Enchantment to sand-fish with a compatible rod of your choice, which saves you from swapping gear every time you move between water and dunes.
Drylands weather and how it changes your catches
The Drylands runs its own weather cycle, and two events open up catches you cannot find otherwise. Check the sky before a farming session so you are not wasting casts on the wrong conditions.
- Dust Storms cut visibility but raise your Luck and unlock exclusive catches, making them the best window for rarer species.
- Torrential Rain floods the Claypans and temporarily adds fish and collectibles that disappear once the water dries up.
Note: Sand fishing can also turn up ancient fossils instead of a normal catch. Those feed a separate collection tied to Petri’s storyline and do not count toward the fish Bestiary.
Complete Drylands Bestiary: bait, weather, and time for every fish
The Drylands Bestiary tracks 22 fish. Matching the listed bait raises your odds but is not strictly required, while any listed time or weather condition must be active to encounter that entry. Every catch shares the Summer season, with the sole exception of the Dune Relic, which has no preferences at all.
| Fish | Bait | Weather | Time | Avg C$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bone-Plate Dace | Insect | Clear | Any | 76.7 |
 Cactus-Feeder Barb | Cacti Pulp | Clear | Any | 68.8 |
 Calcified Trilobite | None | Clear | Any | 31.3 |
 Claypan Guppy | Bagel | Clear | Any | 2,312.5 |
 Dryskin Minnow | Insect | Clear | Any | 27 |
 Dune Relic | None | Any | Any | 5,000 |
 Dune-Stalker Eel | Shrimp | Clear | Night | 2,330.3 |
 Duneseat Crustacean | Cacti Pulp | Clear | Any | 210.8 |
 Dustveil Ray | None | Clear | Any | 207 |
 Marrow Pike | Fish Head | Clear | Any | 153.1 |
 Mirage Fin | Insect | Foggy | Night | 75.1 |
 Petrified Ammonite | None | Clear | Any | 35.4 |
 Photic Terrosunder | Cacti Pulp | Clear | Day | 57,500 |
 Prickly Gurnard | Shrimp | Clear | Any | 2,239.8 |
 Reservoir Squalus | Fish Head | Clear | Night | 5,500 |
 Sandbar Loach | Worm | Clear | Any | 28.8 |
 Shard-Tooth Salmon | Shrimp | Clear | Any | 148.5 |
 Silt-Crusted Carp | Worm | Clear | Any | 80 |
 Strata-Bound Bass | Worm | Clear | Any | 223.1 |
 Sun-Blistered Perch | Shrimp | Clear | Day | 5,460 |
 Terrosunder Skull | Fish Head | Clear | Any | 5,826.7 |
 Torrential Catfish | Worm | Clear | Any | 205.8 |
Catches that need special conditions
Most Drylands fish appear in Clear weather at any time, so a handful of entries are the ones that trip people up. Line these conditions up before you write off a catch as bad luck.
The Mirage Fin is the only fish that requires Foggy weather, and it also needs Night. You cannot grind it in Clear conditions like the rest, so wait for fog to roll in after dark. The Dune-Stalker Eel and Reservoir Squalus both need Night as well, so plan those casts around the in-game day and night clock.
The Photic Terrosunder stands apart from everything else. It is a Secret-rarity catch that only shows up during the Photic Terrosunder Hunt sub-event, appears during Day, and has its progress locked at -95%, making it the single hardest entry in the region by a wide margin.
The Dune Relic works the other way. It has no weather, time, or season requirement at all, so it can turn up in any conditions, which makes it one of the easier high-value pulls despite the unusual name.
Best rods for the Drylands Bestiary
The right rod makes a real difference on the harder catches, especially the Terrosunder Skull and Photic Terrosunder. The Terrotrapper Rod is the top pick for serious Drylands fishing. It is crafted at the Ancient Archives on Ancient Isle and built specifically for this region, with 210% Luck, an infinite Max Kg cap, and a passive that adds extra progress every 10 to 20 seconds.
If you do not have that rod yet, any high-Luck rod with a strong Max Kg cap will handle most of the list. Prioritize Luck first, since Drylands fish favor it heavily, and the jump from 100% to 200% Luck is very noticeable in practice.
Rewards and how to confirm completion
Open the Bestiary with the H key and pick the Drylands location page. Completion is shown as a percentage under the location, and hitting full completion turns that page’s text yellow. A short jingle plays the first time you open the page after finishing it, which confirms the reward has triggered.
Completing the full Drylands Bestiary grants 50,000 C$, 50,000 XP, and the Small Cactus Bobber. Only fish you reel in yourself count. Anything received through trading does not add to your percentage, so every entry has to come off your own line.
If an entry refuses to appear, the cause is almost always a missed condition rather than bad luck. Confirm you are using the Marrow Rod with the Sand Sifter for sand species, that the season is Summer, and that any required Night timing or Foggy weather is active before you keep casting.
