Fishing is done with a Fishing Pole by any water deep enough to swim in. You cast a float, wait for a bite, set the hook and reel in what you caught. Catches can be fish, gear, ore and other materials, spirits, or now and then just Fishbones. Your rod's metal decides how rare a thing can bite.
CONTENTS
Getting started
- Make a Stone Fishing Pole at a crafting table (see Crafting). Every metal makes a better one: see Fishing Rods.
- Hold the rod in your hand and walk to the edge of a lake, pond or river.
- You can't cast while swimming, in the air, or standing in deep water.
Controls
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Cast | click or F casts toward where you aim. Or hold E and let go: the longer you hold (up to 1.3 seconds), the further the float flies. |
| Set the hook | right-click or R when the float is pulled under |
| Reel | Hold click or F |
| Yank (haul back) | right-click or R |
| Reel the line in and stop | E |
| Open the fishing window | right-click or R by the water, with nothing on the line (see Spirit Wagers) |
Each cast uses a little Stamina, as much as one sword swing. The float lands on the far side of the first stretch of water in reach. How far that is depends on your rod: 80 pixels (5 tiles) for stone, up to 120 pixels (7.5 tiles) for endurium.
The wait and the bite
When the float lands, the game decides what will bite. Then you wait.
- The first wait is 4 to 11 seconds, divided by your rod's BITE. It is never shorter than 1.6 seconds.
- A fish often nibbles first: the float gives 0 to 2 small dips before the real bite. Only fish nibble. Gear, ore, spirits and fishbones bite with no warning.
- At the bite the float is pulled right under, with a splash. Press right-click or R within 1 second to set the hook. Some rod abilities give you longer (up to 0.5 seconds more).
- Too slow, and the float bobs back up. You still get 0.25 seconds of grace to yank. After that the catch is gone: a new one is rolled and you wait 3 to 9 seconds (divided by BITE) for the next bite.
- Yanking when nothing has bitten puts the bite off: it comes at least 0.8 seconds later. Reeling an empty line also puts it off, and brings the float in. If the float reaches the shore, the cast ends.
Reeling in: the fight
Once hooked, a catch switches between two things. Each has one right answer:
| What the float does | What you do | Wrong move |
|---|---|---|
| Wiggling: thrashing and splashing in place | Hold click or F to reel. It comes toward you. If you don't reel, it slowly drifts away. | Yanking strains the line. |
| Running: dragged low, skimming away with a wake, the rod bent double | Press right-click or R to yank. Each yank hauls it back toward you and eases the strain. | Reeling against a run strains the line fast. It snaps in well under a second. |
- Every catch starts out wiggling. For the first 0.4 seconds after the hook, and 0.35 seconds after each change, wrong moves are forgiven.
- A wiggle lasts about 1 to 2 seconds. Then the catch may start to run, or keep wiggling a while longer. A run lasts 1 to 1.7 seconds.
- Gear and ore don't thrash, but they still drag and run like a snag on the bottom. Fishbones don't fight at all.
- If the catch gets more than about 2 tiles past your rod's cast reach, it gets away.
- When it reaches you or the shore, it leaps out of the water into your hands. You hold it up for a moment, glowing in its rarity colour, before it goes into your pack.
Line strain
The line fills with strain only while you make the wrong move. Otherwise strain drains at 35% of the bar each second. When the bar is full, the line snaps: the catch is lost and the rod's line loses 2 uses. A stronger LINE stat fills the bar more slowly when you reel against a run. Yanking a wiggling catch adds 40% of the bar each time (more for heavier catches), so two slips are usually forgiven and a third snaps it.
How hard each catch fights
What's on the line sets its weight (slower to reel), how often it runs, and how fast it strains the line:
| Catch | Weight | Runs after a wiggle | Strain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common fish, spirits, wood, stone, pearl, copper | 1 | 25% | normal |
| Uncommon fish; stone or bronze gear; iron ore | 1.2 | 35% | 10% faster |
| Rare fish; iron gear; long bone | 1.5 | 45% | 25% faster |
| Very rare fish; steel gear; endurium ore | 1.8 | 55% | 40% faster |
| Legendary-rarity fish; endurium gear; a legendary fish | 2.4 | 65% | 60% faster |
A catch runs at 14 pixels a second, plus 6 for each rarity step. You reel at 20 pixels a second times your rod's REEL, divided by the square root of the weight.
What comes up
Each rod metal reaches one more rarity of fish, one more metal of gear and more materials. The table shows a plain cast with no wager, no charm and no rod abilities, cast to full length. Shorter casts are slightly less lucky.
| Rod | Fish | Gear | Materials | Spirits / fishbones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone | 69% | 6% | 12% | 6% / 7% |
| Bronze | 69% | 9% | 14% | 4% / 4% |
| Iron | 71% | 11% | 13% | 3% / 2% |
| Steel | 71% | 13% | 12% | 3% / 1% |
| Endurium | 70% | 15% | 12% | 2% / 1% |
Fish by rarity, as a share of all casts (full-length cast):
| Rod | Common | Uncommon | Rare | Very rare / Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone | 69% | - | - | - |
| Bronze | 42% | 27% | - | - |
| Iron | 27% | 25% | 19% | - |
| Steel | 19% | 25% | 20% | 7% / - |
| Endurium | 14% | 25% | 21% | 8% / 2% |
Materials
| Material | Amount | Rod needed |
|---|---|---|
| Wood, Stone | 1 to 2 | any |
| Pearl | 1 | bronze or finer |
| Copper Ore | 1 to 2 | bronze or finer |
| Iron Ore | 1 to 2 | iron or finer |
| Long Bone | 1 | steel or finer |
| Endurium | 1 | endurium |
Gear
Gear comes up "waterlogged", with 50% to 100% of its durability left. It can be any metal up to your rod's own; lower metals are more common. About 62% of gear is a weapon or tool (a Sword, Greatsword, Daggers, War Hammer, Blade Staff, Bow, Mattock or another Fishing Pole), 25% a raincoat and 13% a charm tangled in weed. A weapon or coat has a 20% chance to come up with a tier of one element's spirits awake, then another 20% for each further tier its metal can hold. If your pack is full, the gear is set down at your feet.
Spirits
A hooked spirit is held up, then bursts and flows into you. It holds one element (65%) or two (35%). Each element gives 2 to 4 spirits, plus 1 for each metal step of your rod (stone 0, endurium 4). Some rod abilities double what spirits hold.
The fish
There are thirteen kinds of fish, in five rarities. Each one is a material you carry and can cook (see Cooking). Every fish holds spirits: these are given up when a rod ability makes "catches give their spirits", or when a fish is struck with a weapon under the water.
| Fish | Rarity | Spirits it holds | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnow | Common | 1 Water | shallow and deeper |
| Goldfish | Common | 3 Water | shallow and deeper |
| Perch | Common | 2 Water, 1 Earth | shallow and deeper |
| Bluegill | Common | 2 Water, 1 Wind | shallow and deeper |
| Carp | Uncommon | 3 Water, 2 Earth | deeper |
| Koi | Uncommon | 3 Water, 2 Fire | middling and deeper |
| Trout | Uncommon | 3 Water, 2 Wind | middling and deeper |
| Pike | Rare | 4 Water, 3 Fire | deeper |
| Catfish | Rare | 4 Water, 3 Earth | deep |
| Eel | Rare | 4 Water, 3 Wind | middling and deeper |
| Ghost Carp | Very rare | 5 Water, 2 Wind, 2 Earth | deep |
| Glasseye | Very rare | 3 Water, 2 Wind | deep |
| Smiling Carp | Legendary | 6 Water, 3 Fire, 3 Earth | deepest only |
Fish under the water
When you swim under the surface, you see the lake's fish moving about. Each kind keeps to its own depth (the Depth column above). Each kind moves in its own way:
- School (Minnow, Goldfish): drift about in schools.
- Cruise (Perch, Bluegill, Koi, Trout, Ghost Carp): wander through open water.
- Bottom (Carp, Catfish, Eel): slow, low over the lake bed.
- Lurk (Pike, Smiling Carp): hold very still, then dart.
- Watch (Glasseye): keeps its distance from you, always facing you. It comes closer after dark.
A fish struck with a weapon under the water gives up its spirits, but you can't take the fish itself: fish are caught on a line. It floats up and is gone after a while.
Fish of each land
Each land's water holds more of some fish when you swim in it. The fishing window's THE WATER page marks these "OFTEN HERE". What bites on your rod is decided by the rod's metal and your wager, not by the land. The exception is each land's own legendary fish.
| Land | More common in its water |
|---|---|
| The Woods | an even mix of every kind |
| The Rocky Highlands | Trout (2.5 times), Pike (2 times), Glasseye (1.5 times), Perch (1.3 times) |
| The Tundra | Catfish and Eel (2.2 times), Carp (2 times); fewer Minnows |
| The Desert | Goldfish and Koi (2.5 times), Minnow (1.5 times); few Pike |
| The Haunted Wood | Ghost Carp (4 times), Glasseye (3 times), Smiling Carp (1.6 times), Catfish (1.5 times); few Minnows |
What fishing teaches
Every catch gives XP (see Stats):
| Catch | XP |
|---|---|
| Fish | Swim: 10 (common), 20 (uncommon), 40 (rare), 80 (very rare), 160 (legendary rarity) |
| A legendary fish | Swim: 400 |
| Gear | Attack: 25 for stone, 50 bronze, 75 iron, 100 steel, 125 endurium |
| Materials | Endurance: 10 to 50, more for finer materials |
| Spirits | Stamina: 15 |
| Fishbones | Swim: 2 |
Making a fishing pole also teaches Swim and Endurance.
Line wear
Each catch uses up one of the rod's line uses: 65 for a stone rod, up to 293 for endurium. A snapped line costs 2. When the line is worn out, you can still fish, but the line is half as strong. See Fishing Rods.
Tips
- Watch for nibbles. A twitch before the bite means a fish is coming.
- Always do one thing at a time: reel only while it wiggles, yank only while it runs.
- A heavier catch takes longer to reel. Don't hurry it during a run.
- Rod abilities that make catches "flee slower" give you longer reeling windows and shorter runs.
- Keepsakes from village quests help too. The Mirage Lure (the desert) cuts the wait for a bite by 20%. The Moonglass Float (the haunted wood) gives a legendary fish that doesn't bite a second chance, 1 time in 4. See Keepsakes.
- An Angler's Charm can cast further, reel faster, yank harder and bring luck. See Charms.
- Show off your fish at home in a Fish Tank. A legendary fish can go on a Trophy Mount.
