Fishing is a gathering skill done with a fishing rod and bait — it feeds the kitchen with carp, herring, zander, salmon and cod, and turns up the odd treasure map along the way. You can fish actively, playing a short reel-in minigame for the fastest catches and the most XP, or passively (AFK) for a slow, hands-off trickle. Your rods and which fish you can catch improve through the Fishing branch of the Character Development tree.
Want a fully hands-off option? A Fish Trap catches fish on its own once you reach Tier 5 Fishing.
Active fishing
Active fishing is the fastest way to catch fish and earns the most XP. Equip a fishing rod and put your bait on your hotbar. To cast a line: press the bait's hotkey, hover the mouse over water, and click. After a few seconds you'll get a bite — then follow the on-screen indicators in the minigame to reel the fish in.
Fishing in higher-quality water yields fish more quickly, and gives a higher chance to catch salmon or cod if you're using worms. As you fish, the water's quality depletes, so you'll need to move to a new spot after a while; quality replenishes slowly over many hours.
You will always catch something when fishing — what you catch, and how long it takes, depends on the factors covered below.
Fishing minigame
Playing the minigame well catches fish much more quickly. Click the direction indicated to increase the timer's progression — each click costs some stamina, and clicking several in a row grants additional progression bonuses.
- Timer progression is based on your overall remaining stamina.
- High stamina → a bigger bonus of about 6 seconds per click.
- Low stamina → a much smaller bonus of about 2 seconds per click.
- At 0 stamina the minigame deactivates, reactivating once you've recovered some.
To AFK fish, simply ignore the minigame — the line still works, just far more slowly.
Passive fishing
Passive fishing is about 1/10 the speed of active fishing and rewards roughly 1/3 the XP per catch — and it can be dangerous to AFK.
To passively fish, equip a fishing rod, choose your bait, cast once and leave it. The minigame still activates, but you'll catch a fish automatically when the timer expires. Fisheries are still depleted while AFK fishing, so beware how long you idle in one place.
With multiple types of bait in your inventory, the rod uses up the bait you started with first, then works through the rest in inventory order until it's all gone.
Character development: Fishing
To catch different fish you must unlock the fishing rods in the Fishing branch of the Character Development skill tree — done simply by fishing and gaining XP, actively or AFK. Begin with the grey Tier 1 Novice's Fishing Rod, using Bread Ball bait to catch Carp.
Press the quote key ( ' ) to see your fishing progression.
Fish and preferred bait
Each fish is caught at its best rate with its preferred bait, and the higher-tier fish award more XP:
| Fish | Preferred bait | XP awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Carp | Breadball | Very Low |
| Herring | Cyperus | Low |
| Zander | Grub | Moderate |
| Salmon | Beetle | Good |
| Cod | Worm | Great |
Which fish you catch — and how quickly you get a bite — depends on several factors:
- Fishery condition.
- Your Character Development progress in Fishing.
- The tier and quality of your fishing rod.
- Which bait you use.
- Whether a lure is active.
- How well you play the minigame, if actively fishing.
Fisheries and condition
Fish can be caught in any water deep enough to swim in. A "fishery" is an area of water divided into rough squares a few meters across. There's no way to see a fishery's exact size or edges — throwing your bait every few steps and watching the condition change is how you map them out.
There are four qualities of fishery:
- Rich
- Average
- Poor
- Exploited
A fishery in higher condition gives faster catches and a greater chance at rarer fish like salmon and cod (when using bait that can catch them). Condition decreases as fish are caught — and fishing also lowers the condition of all adjacent fisheries, more slowly. Over time, every fishery replenishes.
To read a fishery's condition, equip your rod and use bait; when the bait touches the water you begin fishing and the condition is displayed. Throw bait many times as you run along the shore — you'll see the condition vary, and it can take a while to find an Average or Rich spot.
Check condition without wasting bait
Cast, read the quality, then immediately jump to interrupt the (several-second) animation, move down the shore, and repeat. Interrupting before the animation completes means no bait is used — only actually catching a fish uses 1 bait.
Where the good fisheries are
Fisheries near the capital and in safe zones are far more likely to be Poor or Exploited. A Rich fishery usually lies further out — often in a Warzone (loot-enabled) area, so fish there at your own risk.
Fishing rods
There are four tiers of fishing rod, all crafted with the Engineering profession. Access to higher rods is gained by improving your Fishing skill in Character Development:
- Novice's Fishing Rod
- Journeyman's Fishing Rod
- Craftsman's Fishing Rod
- Master's Fishing Rod
- Higher-tier rods have a higher chance to get a bite faster.
- Higher-quality rods have a lower overall cast time — for AFK fishing that can be a difference of about 20 seconds between a +0 and a +6 rod of the same tier.
- When active fishing, a lower cast time means fewer pulls to reel a fish in — less time spent in the minigame.
Bait and lures
There are 5 types of bait. Using the correct bait increases your chance to catch a specific fish — each is a specialty for one fish, but will pull lower-tier fish too:
Breadballs — Tier 1. Carp specialty. Made by disassembling bread (also good for leveling Cooking).
Cyperus — Tier 2. Herring specialty; can also catch carp. Grown as a crop.
Grubs — Tier 3. Zander specialty; also catches herring and carp. Found when weeding crops or digging in the dig pit.
Beetles — Tier 4. Salmon specialty; also catches zander, herring and carp. Found when weeding crops.
Worms — Tier 5. Cod specialty; also catches salmon, zander, herring and carp. Found while weeding crops, or for 15 Contribution Points each at the Glory Quartermaster.
A lure is not bait — think of it as a buff dropped on the fishery:
Lure — bought from the Glory vendor for 800 Contribution Points, or the Supporter Shop for 150 ambers. It speeds up catches, cuts the fishery's exploitation rate by 50%, and raises your chance at salmon or cod (when using beetles or worms). Lasts 30 minutes, benefits everyone nearby, and extends to adjacent fisheries.
A placed lure also shows up as an icon on the map that any nearby player can see — so players hunting PvP may come find you. Its map range is relatively short, at least.
Your catch is cooked through Cooking & Herbalism, and you'll occasionally reel in treasure maps for Archaeology.