There are a lot of types of fish that players can catch in Stardew Valley that can help them either make money or produce new items using the Fish Pond.
If you want to get a lot of Squid Ink to impress your darling Elliot, then catching a few Squids will be something you must do.
Recommended Read: How to Change Your Name in Stardew Valley
Unfortunately, players can only catch Squid during one of the worst seasons in game, when they usually spend their time in the Mines or preparing for the next year.
You can catch Squid in Stardew Valley by fishing at the Beach during the night in the Winter. If you have chosen the Beach Farm, you can also catch it on the farm.
Table of Contents
- How to Catch Squid in Stardew Valley
- What to Do with Squid
- How to Catch the Midnight Squid
- Can You Catch the Blue Squid in the Mines?
How to Catch Squid in Stardew Valley
The Squid is a saltwater fish that you can only catch in Stardew Valley by fishing at the Beach or at the Beach Farm (if you chose it at the start of the game) during the Winter.
Unfortunately, you can’t just fish at any time during the day, though. The Squid is only available from 6 PM to 2 AM.
The squid is extremely hard to catch once you manage to get it on your hook, as it moves extremely fast downwards in the fishing minigame. It will rise and fall even faster, making low-level fishermen usually lose it.
To catch the Squid, you will need to be really slow when you rise after it and try to keep the green bar on the lower side of the slider.
When it rises, try to touch it only with the upper part of the green bar, to easily go down when it drops.
It is in the top 10 in terms of difficulty when it comes to the fishing minigame.
Since there is only one other fish that is hard to catch in the ocean during the Winter, you can generally figure out easily if you are fighting to catch the Squid or a different fish in the sea.
How to Catch it Any Time
From Qi’s Walnut Room on Ginger Island, players can purchase 20 Magic Bait for 5 Qi Gems. You can also buy the recipe to make them yourself for 20 Qi Gems.
This Magic Bait can be attached to the Fishing Pole to ignore season, time, and weather requirements for catching fish.
This means that if you use Magic Bait while fishing in the ocean, you have a decent chance of catching a Squid no matter the season or time of day.
You can only use the Magic Bait with the Fiberglass Rod or with the Iridium Rod, so make sure to bring one of them along for your fishing session.
Since Ginger Island is a relatively late-game area, you aren’t likely to use the amazing Magic Bait early in the game, but if you just want to catch the Squid to complete a quest or for gifts, this is the best way to go about it.
What to Do with Squid
Though the Squid is relatively hard to catch in Stardew Valley, it doesn’t really have a lot of uses in Pelican Town. You can either use it for gifts, food recipes, Squid Ink, or quests.
As a gift you can give it to Elliot as a “liked” gift. All other villagers are either neutral to it or dislike it. If you want to get even more out of this gift possibility, you can place the Squid in a Fish Pond and produce Squid Ink to gift.
Elliot loves Squid Ink, making it a better choice than the Squid by itself. However, if you are lazy, that is always a possibility.
Though Squid can be used in any recipe that needs fish, you can actually use it for a unique recipe to make Fried Calamari.
This is a recipe you get from Jodi in the mail once you reach 3 hearts with her, which all villagers (besides Krobus and Leo) like.
The recipe is relatively easy to make if you can get your hands on Squid, which makes it a great gift. You just need Squid, Wheat Flour, and Oil to make it.
There are also a couple of quests that will require you to catch Squid. One of them will come from Willy on Winter 2, asking you to bring him one Squid.
Demetrius also has a few quests that can require the player to catch from 1 to 10 Squids.
How to Catch the Midnight Squid
There is also a different type of Squid, called the Midnight Squid, in Stardew Valley, which is more expensive than the normal Squid (80 g vs 100 g) and is better at producing Squid Ink in the Fish Pond.
Unfortunately, you can only catch the Midnight Squid in Stardew Valley during the Night Market, which takes place on the Beach from Winter 15 to Winter 17.
Players can only capture the elusive Midnight Squid between 5 PM to 2 AM using the submarine in the Night Market.
You also have a really low chance of around 3% to catch it if you use Magic Bait and fish right to the south of where the submarine is docked during the Night Market.
As opposed to the normal Squid, the Midnight Squid is relatively easy to catch. It doesn’t move around as much as the basic one during the minigame, which makes it a much more reliable fish to catch.
When it comes to the Fish Pond, the regular Squid can only produce one Squid Ink per day. The Midnight Squid, once the population of the pond reaches 10, has a 24% chance of producing 2 Squid Ink every day.
Can You Catch the Blue Squid in the Mines?
After you activate the Shrine of Challenge and make the Mines a harder dungeon, you will start seeing a new type of enemy, the Blue Squid, flying around.
This enemy has a really high chance of dropping Squid Ink (20%), but you can’t actually “catch” it, to add it to your Fish Ponds. You can just fight and defeat it, as you would all normal enemies.
That’s everything you need to know about how to catch Squid in Stardew Valley!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
