Tiny Tatsunoko

Well, I wasn’t going to write about this, because everyone knows how to catch it already. But today I happened to have caught a Tiny Tatsunoko minion while using Normal Gig Head. Therefore, I decided I should write about it so people may find this piece of information useful.

*Flash News* While writing this entry, I have also confirmed that Small Gig Head can catch a Tiny Tatsunoko, too! :D I’ve been catching Horned Turbans at Swimming Shadows trying to confirm this. And yes, my theory turned out to be true!

What you need:

Unlock Spearfishing (FSH 61) through a quest.
Be on or have finished main scenario quest “Under the Sea” (lv 62) to access the quest NPC.
Be a fisher of at least level 66 and complete the level 66 class quest for a skill called “Truth of Oceans”.

What to do (short version):

Go to The Ruby Sea (X:38 , Y:6), near top right of the map.
Spearfish at Lv. 70 Teeming Waters (Kobayashi Maru).
Use Small Gig Head and try to catch Bashful Batfish.
Catch a lot of Bashful Batfish until the system mentions “Swimming Shadows” 4 times.
Activate your “Truth of Oceans” if you haven’t activated it yet.
Follow the detection and find Lv. 70 Swimming Shadows.
Change to either Normal Gig Head or Large Gig Head.
Spear.
Pray to Llymlaen for your luck to find a Tiny Tatsunoko.

By the way, I don’t think weather condition affects the catch. I’ve caught it in both Clear Skies and in Cloudy weathers.

Long explanation of how this thing works:

Usually it takes 2 – 4 catches of Bashful Batfish to make a message occur. ~~The quantity and quality are irrelevant. What matters is how many times you’ve caught Bashful Batfish in your spearfish attempts.~~ Er, I have just discovered that it is actually the quantity of Bashful Batfish, because I happened to find a +2 yields node and I got 4 messages in a row and managed to spawn the Shadows within one node. But since Sea Lamp is in the way, sometimes it is hard to get a Bashful Batfish to trigger the spawn. (I don’t mind them that much, though, because Sea Lamps are used in fishing Levequests, so they sell quite well, especially HQ.

When I catch a Sea Lamp in first try, I spend 200 GP on Veteran Trade to make it so I’ll only catch a Bashful Batfish until that node ends.
I especially like to use Veteran Trade while engaging a node that grants +2 attempts (or +2 yields, due to the discovery in the pic above).
The messages that notify you about Swimming Shadows are as follows:
- With the bashful batfish caught, you sense further movement in the shadows.
- With the bashful batfish caught, the swimming shadows intensify.
- With the bashful batfish caught, the swimming shadows begin to take shape!
- The shadow of an elusive sea creature lurks somewhere nearby!

I should take about 12, or 15 at most, catches of Bashful Batfish to trigger the spawn of a Lv.70 Swimming Shadows at Kobayashi Maru.

Optional things to do when you find a node of Swimming Shadows:
- Eat a Gatherer’s food, like a Nomad Meat Pie (sold by NPC at Reunion, Azim Steppe) because the fish WILL escape A LOT. You want to decrease the escape chance as much as possible.
- Before engaging the node, wait for your GP to regenerate to full.
- Shoo the fish you don’t want, using Veteran Trade. Only once.
- Use Calm Waters to increase available attempts. I usually use this twice.
- When bubbles appear, wait for 1 or 2 ticks of GP generation before spearing, in order to allow enough time for GP to refresh, hoping for the 2^nd Calm Waters.
The Swimming Shadow reacts like BTN and MIN Unspoiled Node. You can only engage it once. If you disengage before it is depleted, it will still disappear.

Funny thing about all of the Swimming Shadows is that the node will always be “Undiscovered fishing hole” and, unfortunately and irritably, they have no Fishing Log of their own.

Fish list at Lv.70 Swimming Shadows:

Small Gig Head
– Bashful Batfish (use Veteran Trade to shoo this!!!)
– Horned Turban (CUL ingredient)
– Tiny Tatsunoko

Normal Gig Head
– Spiny Lobster (crafting ingredient for cooking)
– Swordtip (crafting ingredient for cooking)
– Tiny Tatsunoko

Large Gig Head
– Thousandfang (Collectable fish for Yellow Gatherer’s Scrips at level 70, also great for level 280+ CUL Desynthesis skill up.)
– Mitsuriku Shark (Red Gatherer’s Scrips, if I remember correctly *but it doesn’t always appear on Rowena’s House of Splendor wanted list, you need some luck to get it on the list.*)
– Tiny Tatsunoko

So, you see, there are 3 types of things you can catch at this Lv 70 Swimming Shadows with each type of Gig Head. That’s why it’s difficult to reliably land a Tiny Tatsunoko. Because even if you shoo one type of unwanted fish away, the other one will still be in your way. XD But at least Veteran Trade can get rid of one of them.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Happy hunting!

P.S. Here’s my personal record of which gig head can spear which fish, it’s incomplete but it might become useful to some people. https://goo.gl/n9xbTq