Fishing

To fish, stand at a fishing spot with a fishing rod on your hotbar and interact with the water. You pick a bait, wait for a bite, and then reel the fish in. A caught fish drops on the ground by the water. Every catch counts toward the inspiration Fisher.

What you need

• A fishing rod on your hotbar. A rod in your backpack does not count. Without one your character says “I can’t fish without a fishing rod…”.
• At least 1 Farming mastery. The rod itself adds Farming, so any rod is enough to start (see Mastery).
• Fish left in the water. Each spot holds only a few of each fish; see How many fish a spot holds.
• A bait that something here takes, or a fish that bites with no bait at all.

Your first rod is the Basic Rod the twins give you for six clay plates in Two Peas in a Pod. Fishing I (15 green) unlocks a recipe for it, but making one needs Flax Thread, so Flax Thread (45 green) has to come first.

Bait

When you start, a window lets you choose a bait from your backpack, or No Bait. Only the fish that take that bait can bite, and the window shows them: a fish you have never caught at this spot shows as unknown, and one that is greyed out does not take this bait or has none left.

Which fish bites is random. A fish’s chance depends on how common it is, how much it likes the bait, the time of day, and how many of it are left in the spot, so the more you catch of one fish, the less often it bites. The tables below give the chances for a fully stocked spot.

One bait is used up as soon as you cast, whether or not you land the fish.

Each bait has its own technology: Breadcrumb Bait comes with Fishing II (40 green), Insect Bait with Fishing III (120 green), and Live Bait with Fishing IV, which is hidden until the story reveals it. Until the first of those, only the seven catches that bite with no bait are open to you.

The bite

1. After you cast, wait. A fish bites after 1 to 8 seconds, depending on the fish. Do not press anything before it bites, or it swims off.
2. When it bites, the float dips and a sign appears. You have 0.7 to 2 seconds to press; if you wait longer, it gets away.

Reeling in

Hold the button to reel in and let go to give line. A hooked fish takes short rests and then fights, over and over. Two bars matter: how close the fish is, and how tight the line is.

• While the fish rests, reeling in brings it closer, and the line tightens only slowly. Letting go costs nothing.
• While it fights, reeling in makes the line tighten very fast, and it breaks within about a second. If your Farming mastery is below the fish’s Fight, reeling in during a fight even pulls the fish away from you. Letting go loosens the line quickly, but the fish swims off a little.

So hold while the fish rests and let go the moment it starts to fight. You land the fish when it reaches you; you lose it if it swims all the way out or the line snaps. The line flashes when it is close to breaking.

Higher Farming mastery reels the fish in faster while it rests. The talent Fisherman lowers the Fight of every fish, by 1 to 6 depending on the fish.

Exact formula

Each second, with Farming mastery M (the rod’s bonus included), the rod’s own bonus R, and the fish’s Fight F (resisting = 1 while it fights, 0 while it rests):

• Reeling in: the fish comes √(M − F × resisting) × 24 closer, or moves √(F × resisting − M) × 24 away if F × resisting is larger than M; and the line tightens by (10 + 500 × resisting + 10 × F) ÷ (5 + 0.1 × (R + M)).
• Letting go: the fish moves √(F × resisting) × 20 away, and the line loosens by 80 + 3 × (R + M).

The fish starts at 0 and is landed at 100 or lost at −100; the line breaks at 100.

Example: with the Basic Rod and no other Farming (M = 1, R = 1), a Roach (Fight 2) comes in at 24 a second while it rests, so it takes about four seconds of reeling. If you keep reeling while it fights, the line tightens by about 102 a second.

How many fish a spot holds

Each spot holds a small, fixed number of each fish (Stock in the tables). When you catch one, it is gone from that spot until it comes back. Fish come back one at a time, and never above the starting number. When a spot has none left of anything, your character says “There are no fish left here”.