Fishing in Terraria is one of the most lucrative ways to spend your time. You'll inevitablyend up fishing at least a couple of times, especiallyif you want to complete the Angler's fishing quests. Don't worry: fishing is definitelyworth it.
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In the early game, you can get loads of awesome items that will carry you into Hardmode. While you're searching for these useful items, you'll also need to collect lots of different types of fish to craft useful potions during the harder boss fights. Here's absolutely everything you need to know about fishing in Terraria.
Updated by Harry Alston on June 21, 2021:We've expanded this guide to cover a few extra pointers, including a segment on how to complete fishing quests!
How Fishing Works In Terraria
Fishing, in its simplest form of standing over a body of water and using a fishing pole, is very straightforward in Terraria. You can begin fishing from the very start of the game with a simple wooden fishing rod and some worms you scoop up from an underground cave.
However, once you embark on completing the200 Angler quests (yes, there really is an achievement for completing 200 of them) you will be fishing all over the place: in lava, or honey, or an underground Crimson cave. The requirements of fishing are very specific and can change from biome to biome. Here are a couple of details to keep in mind.
Fishing Quests From The Angler
One of the best ways to enjoy fishing in Terraria is to complete Angler Quests. These are given out by the Angler NPC. There are dozens and dozens of quests, like hunting for the Mudfish in the Jungle biome and the Jewelfish in the Cavern layer. Only one quest can be completed per Terraria day, and a new quest is available at the start of each new day (starts at 4:40 am).
There are loads of different rewards you can earn, including:
- Fuzzy Carrot, granted on the fifth quest, which lets the player spawn a Bunny mount
- Fin Wings, only available in Hardmode and granted at any point after 10 completed quests
- Golden Fishing Rod, granted after completing 75 quests, although it is not a guaranteed drop at the 75th quest
Requirements To Be Able To Fish In Terraria
Much like in real life, there isn't much use in fishing in a puddle. In Terraria, the body of liquid needs to be at least 75 connected tiles. If you have a quest from the Angler to fish in the Ocean, it will need to be at least 1,000 tiles of connected water (so you do have to head to the edge of your world to complete these quests).
Here are some other factors to remember:
- You can't fish while standing in water, even a little bit
- You can fish from the back of certain mounts, including the Slime Mount
- The size of the lake does have an impact on the rarity of loot you fish up
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What Is Fishing Power?
Fishing Power is the statistic that basically determines how successful your fishing trips will be. If you have a high fishing power, the chance of getting rare loot from each reel-in goes up significantly. There are lots of factors that determine fishing power, including your fishing gear, potions, and the environment around you. Here's what to remember:
- Fishing power is mostly determined by the quality of your fishing rod
- You can drink potions to buff your fishing power
- There are a bunch of different accessories designed just for fishing
- The better the fishing power, the better your loot
Overall, there are three factors that impact Fishing Power in Terraria:
- The Fishing Rod you're using
- The bait power of whatever bait you're using
- Various accessories and fishing potions
Fishing Power is also affected by the size of the lake where the player is fishing. Lakes with less than 300 tiles will inflict a fishing power penalty. This means you want to be fishing in a large body of water. You can create artificial biomes if you can't find a body of water large enough in any of the biomes, or spend time digging out lakes so that they're deeper and wider.
Chum Buckets are also extremely useful for boosting fishing power and the success of your fishing. Chum Buckets are dropped by Blood Moon enemies such as the Wandering Eye Fish and Zombie Merman. These enemies spawn while you fish during a Blood Moon. You can max out the fishing bonus at 20 when you throw in three Chum Buckets.
You should also keep in mind that your fishing line can break if you're not using the High Test Fishing line. If it does break you will lose any chance you had of reeling in the catch. This can occur with a 1 in 7 chance.
Hidden Factors That Impact Overall Fishing Power
Two other hidden factors can impact fishing power: Luck, a new mechanic introduced in 1.4, and the limits put in place by fishing power scaling.
Luck can increase or decrease fishing power depending on whether the player has positive or negative luck. Luck can be boosted with the use of buff potions, torch placement, and some other factors.
- You can touch a ladybug to improve your luck marginally.
- Biome-specific torches will increase luck, like using an Ice Torch in the Snow Biome, or a Cursed Torch in the Corruption biome.
- Lucky potions improve luck.
- Lantern nights, where the sky is full of lanterns during the night, increases luck at a flat rate.
Fishing power scaling will slowly reduce overall fishing power when it reaches a high level. This is to keep fishing power at a reasonable level even if you've stacked loads of buffs. Don't worry, this doesn't have a massive impact, just a small percentage reduction for each 50 or 100 fishing power accrued.
The ultimate set-up for a fishing trip in Terraria will include the best Fishing Rod you can get, plenty of bait with a high fishing power value, and as many of the accessories that you've unlocked from the Angler as possible. Check out our list of the 10 best accessories in the game.
How To Get The Best Fishing Power Rods In Terraria
There are several different great fishing rods in Terraria, from the basic wooden pole all the way up to the endgame Golden Fishing Rod. Some are crafted, others are purchased, and some are only available via the Angler's quests. Your best bet for the ultimate fishing rod without completing quests is the Sitting Duck's Fishing Pole, sold by the Traveling Merchant once Skeletron is defeated. You can check out our complete list of all the best fishing rods in Terraria right here.
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Fishing Crates Make Fishing Worth It
The average drop rate of a Crate while fishing is about 1 in 10, according to the Terraria Wiki. With a Crate Potion, that chance is basically doubled, to 1 in 5. The chances of getting a rare crate go up depending on your overall fishing power, and also the type of Biome you're in. Crates have a chance to drop random ore, bars, potions, accessories, and on rare occasions, items that you might find from a matching Biome chest.
What Is Bait And Why Is It Important?
There are lots of different types of Bait in Terraria. Each one has a fishing power rating that coincides with your accessories, potions, and fishing rod power. Not all Bait is available right from the start of the game, and some Bait is much rarer than others. Once you have a fishing set-up achieved you'll actually get most of your Bait from fishing itself, as it is quite regularly dropped in Crates.
Bait, especially Bait with low power, is often consumed while fishing, even if the player does not catch a fish. The durability of the bait scales with its power, so you have a better chance of using the bait for multiple catches with the Master Bait rather than the Apprentice Bait, for example.
Here are some fishing Bait tips:
- During the early game, you will want to craft a Bug Net and start swiping up every Critter you see, worms are a great way to start fishing very early on
- Aim for Master Bait, with its power of 50 percent
- Golden Critters, like the Gold Butterfly, also have a powerof 50 percent
- The Tackle Box accessory increases Bait power by 5 percent
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Fishing Accessories In Terraria
Credit to reddit user u/cocoabunnies for this awesome Angler house build
There are a total of six accessories for fishing in Terraria, although one or two of those are multiple accessories combined at a Tinkerer's Workshop. The three key fishing accessories (The High Test Fishing Line, Angler Earring, and Tackle Box) are all offered by the Angler NPC as a quest reward. These rewards are not guaranteed, so you may need to complete several quests before you get one. The Angler Earring has a 2.5 percent chance to be offered by the NPC, for example.
Here's every fishing accessory in Terraria and what it does:
- The High Test Fishing Line prevents the fishing line from breaking (quest reward from the Angler)
- The Angler Earringincreases overall fishing power by 10 percent(quest reward from the Angler)
- The Tackle Boxdecreases the chances of your bait being consumed(quest reward from the Angler)
- Angler Tackle Bag, an accessory that combines all three Angler fishing accessories into one slot (crafted at a Tinkerer's Workshop)
- Lavaproof Fishing Hookallows fishing in lava with any rod or bait, found in Hellstone and Obsidian crates (fished up in the Underworld biome)
- Lavaproof Tackle Bagcombines all the fishing accessories into one slot (Tinkerer's Workshop)
Fishing Potions In Terraria
There are a couple of very useful potions that any keen fisher should think about crafting. Take the aptly named Fishing Potion, for example. When consumed it grants a buff to fishing power of 15, which is a pretty good flat upgrade. It will last for eight minutes in total.
- Crafted with Bottled Water, Crispy Honey Block, and Waterleaf
- You need to be stood by an Alchemy Table or Placed Bottle to craft potions
You should also consider investing in plenty of Crate Potions. These are crafted with Amber, Moonglow, Shiverthorn, and Waterleaf, and only last three minutes. They boost your chances of getting a crate from fishing by a significant amount, basically doubling your chances. They are quite expensive, though, so might be considered an endgame item once you've got your farms set up.
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Items You Can Get From Fishing In Terraria 1.4
We mentioned right at the start of the guide that fishing is a verylucrative activity in Terraria 1.4. There are loads of different items you can get while fishing, including the extremely rare Frog Leg accessory. Here's a comprehensive list of some of the best items you can get while fishing:
- The Reaver Shark, a very rare Pickaxe that is one of the best pre-hardmode pickaxes in the game, can be found while fishing in the Sky and Surface level at the Ocean biome
- The Zephyr Fish, a pet that isactually considered one of the rarest pets in the game
- The Rockfish, a very powerful Hammer that will last you until hardmode, can be found while fishing in the Underground, Cavern, and Underworld layers
- The Sawtooth Shark, a chainsaw item that is very rare and one of the best axes until hardmode, found while fishing in the Sky and Surface levels at the Ocean Biome
- Balloon Pufferfish, an extremely rare movement accessory that can be found fishing pretty much anywhere (still very rare, though)
- The Advanced Combat Techniques consumable book, can only be obtained by fishing while in a Blood Moon, and can only be used once per world, boosts your town NPC's health and attack damage
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