Fishing Lifeskill Guide

Introduction

Fishing is one of the easiest life skills to get into because all you really need is a fishing rod to get started. Fishing can be done actively or AFK and many players choose to AFK fish on an alt character overnight for extra profit. Fish do not stack in your inventory though so having lots of inventory space is important for your fishing character.

The different tiers of fishing levels are:

• Beginner Level 1 – 10
• Apprentice Level 1 – 10
• Skilled Level 1 – 10
• Professional Level 1 – 10
• Artisan Level 1 – 10
• Master Level 1 – 30
• Guru Level 1+

Fishing levels can be obtained by catching fish and getting experience. The higher rarity of the fish, the more experience it will give. A good source of EXP is also completing the fishing quests around the game. Although these quests can be quite tedious and are not recommended.

• The higher the fishing skill, the faster and more likely you are to catch higher quality grade fish (grades: white, green, blue, yellow, orange)
• You will have the ability to use better rods.
• You unlock certain fishing quests.
• You can see more “Fishing Hotspots” out in the ocean.
• Allows you to use the discard fish setting.

Fishing Rods

Fishing Rods are equipped in your main-hand weapon slot. There are many different types of fishing rods you can use. Some fishing rods can be enhanced with Black Stones for extra stats and/or durability. Check our failstack guide to see how many fail stacks you should use on them.

For AFK fishing you want to have a +10 Balenos Fishing Rod. This is because the Balenos Fishing Rod can be enhanced to give higher durability and also increase the speed that you AFK fish. The Balenos fishing rod can also be repaired, unlike many other fishing rods.

Each time you cast your fishing rod, you have a chance to lose the durability of the item. If the durability reaches zero or you run out of inventory space you will stop fishing. You can use an Item Brand Spell Stone (Pearl Store > Function > Misc. >  400 Pearls) on the fishing rod to reduce the durability consumption, allowing you to fish for longer before your rod breaks, but this is only recommended if you have enough inventory slots and are not filling your inventory overnight.

For active fishing, you should use a Triple Float Rod (if available) or Mediah Rod for freshwater fishing, and Calpheon Rod for saltwater fishing.

Below is a full breakdown of all fishing rods:

	Item Name	Details	How to obtain
	Old Fishing Rod	Durability: 10 Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 1) Log x1
	Fishing Rod	Durability: 30 Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Sold by fishing vendors for 500 silver
	Thick Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Beginner 10)	Durability: 40 Fishing Speed Level +1 Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 1) Ash Timber x1 Copper Ingot x1 Black Stone Powder x3
	Steel Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Skilled 5)	Durability: 65 Fishing Speed Level +2 Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 2) Ash Timber x1 Steel x2 Black Stone Powder x4
	Balenos Fishing Rod	Durability: 50 to 100 (depending on enhancement) Auto-fishing Time -10% to -25% (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 3) Ash Timber x1 Steel x2 Pure Copper Crystal x5 Monk’s Branch x9 Black Stone Powder x15
	Epheria Fishing Rod	Durability: 50 to 150 (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 3) Birch Timber x1 Steel x2 Pure Iron Crystal x5 Monk’s Branch x9 Black Stone Powder x15
	Mediah Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Artisan 1)	Durability: 50 Chance to Catch Rare Fish +1% to +5% (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 3) White Cedar Timber x1 Steel x2 Pure Zinc Crystal x5 Monk’s Branch x9 Black Stone Powder x15
	Calpheon Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Professional 1)	Durability: 50 Chance to Catch Big Fish +1% to +11% (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 3) Fir Timber x1 Steel x2 Pure Lead Crystal x5 Monk’s Branch x9 Black Stone Powder x15
	Golden Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Professional 5)	Durability: 100 Fishing Speed Level +3 Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 3) Ash Timber x1 Steel x2 Gold Ingot x2 Black Stone Powder x5
	Triple-Float Fishing Rod (Requires Fishing Skilled 5)	Durability: 30 Can catch multiple fish at once Cannot be repaired Cannot be enhanced	Can only be obtained through quests or Central Market [Weekly] A Special Fishing Rod Rewards x3 Fishing Rods

Fishing Floats/Crio’s Fishing Chair

Fishing floats are equipped in your offhand weapon slot and can be repaired and enhanced with weapon black stones. Check our failstack guide to see how many fail stacks you should use on them.

You ideally want to use a +10 Maple Float. You can also use an Item Brand Spell Stone (Pearl Store > Function > Misc. >  400 Pearls) to reduce durability consumption.

Below is a full breakdown of all fishing floats:

	Item Name	Details	How to obtain
	Maple Float (Requires Fishing Artisan 1)	Durability: 50 Chance to Catch Rare Fish +1% to +5% (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 2) Maple Timber x1 Oil of Tranquility x3 Red Crystal x2 Pure Lead Crystal x2
	Ash Tree Float (Requires Fishing Professional 1)	Durability: 50 Chance to Catch Big Fish +1% to +11% (depending on enhancement) Can be repaired Can be enhanced	Tool Workshop (Level 2) Ash Timber x1 Oil of Tranquility x3 Translucent Crystal x2 Pure Lead Crystal x2

You can also use the Crio’s Fishing Chair which goes into your offhand slot.

• Crio’s Fishing Chair can be crafted at the Carpentry Workshop level 3 of each city
  • Crafting Material:  Standardized Timber Square x15, Ash Plywood x15, Steel x5, Monk’s Branch x5, Trace of Origin x20, Plywood Hardener x5
• You can also exchange Fish Bones and Tattered Boots for Crio’s Fishing Chair at Crio at Velia to obtain Crio’s Fishing Chair.
• Crio’s Fishing Chair has a base durability of 100 and consumes 1 durability per fishing attempt.
• Crio’s Fishing Chair can be equipped to the character and gives Fishing Mastery +100.
• Players found it is usually better to use the Maple Float instead
  

Fishing Gear/Buffs

To maximize the quality and quantity of fish caught you need to have either high fishing level and/or maximum fishing ability level.

• Fishing Costume (+1)
• Guild Buff (+1 to +3)
• Silver Embroidered Fisher’s Costume (+1 to +2)
• Balenos Meal (+2)
• Fisher’s Elixir (+2)
• Alchemy Stone/Life Spirit Stone (+2)
• Pet Skills (+1 per pet)
• Tailoring Coupon (+1)
  

Ideally, though you want to try and maintain fishing ability level 5 without popping food/elixirs/alchemy stone so that you have the level 5 buff for AFK fishing as well.

Shim Cheong’s Miraculous Fish Tank can be obtained once per family by completing a questline.

• The questline is time-gated and takes 4 weekly quest resets to complete, so start as early as possible!
• To complete the final quest in the chain, you will need Fishing Master Level 1 or higher.

How to Fish/AFK Fish

Once you have a fishing rod, approach any source of water with your fishing rod equipped, then press [SPACE] to cast your line. You will then begin fishing and must now wait until you have a bite.

There are different Fishing Resources depending on where you are fishing and how many people have been fishing in that area. The less resources there are, the longer it will take for you to get a bite, so ideally you want abundant resources, but it is not too important that you should worry about it.

Below are the fishing resources, listed from highest to lowest:

• Abundant
• Average
• Not Enough
• Exhausted

Once you have a bite, it will be indicated with a fishing speech bubble above your head.

You must press [SPACE] to begin the mini-game. Next, a bar will pop up that will fill and empty 3 times maximum before automatically failing. You must press [SPACE] again whilst the bar is in the blue area. If you succeed then you reach the last phase of the minigame. If you fail you have to re-cast your line and wait for another bite. You can obtain a perfect reel if you manage to press spacebar at the exact time that the bar is completely full. On a perfect reel, you get to skip the last part of the minigame and get your fish instantly.

The second and last phase of the minigame is when you just have to push the right buttons within the time given. The longer the sequence the better the fish you are reeling in!

After you have successfully completed all phases of the minigame you will receive a window with the fish you have just caught. Press [R] to pick up the fish and put it in your inventory. If you recast your line without pressing [R] then the fish will be deleted.

When you go to cast your line, you can also hold down [SPACEBAR] and invest energy into your cast. With a maximum of 10 energy points you can roll for a chance to catch multiple fish. If you combined this method with a Triple-Float Fishing Rod you have a chance to obtain 5 fish in one cast!

To set up AFK fishing, all you have to do is cast your line. When you get a bite, your character will wait 3 minutes (base time) for you to manually catch the fish. If you don’t catch the fish then the game will automatically catch it for you and it will go straight into your inventory.

Before you go AFK, make sure to check your AFK settings and location. You can tick the box shown in the Fishing UI to make sure you can’t be kidnapped by other players on a boat. You should also make sure to AFK in a safe zone if you are going AFK for a long period of time, because some players may decide to kill you or take you with them on an adventure.

You can also select the grade of fish you would like to throw away. For example, if you select the green fish icon, you will throw away the following fish grades: White, Green. If you select the yellow fish icon, you will throw away: White, Green, Blue, and Yellow. You will still keep trash regardless but trash has its own uses (check the fishing loot section below for more info)!

Certain Fishing Life skill level is required to use the discard setting:

• White Fish icon: Professional 1+
• Green Fish icon: Professional 1+
• Blue Fish icon: Artisan 1+
• Yellow Fish icon: Master 1+

After double-checking your location and discard settings, the last thing to do is close the game to tray (this does not exit the game fully). This is when the game runs as a background process but does not load your graphics card. It is useful if you like to have your power bills under control. You can do this by pressing [ESC] > “Disconnect” > “Minimize to Tray”.

Fishing Loot and selling your Fish

Fish rarity is consistent with the rarity types in Black Desert Online.

• White Fish ~ approx 200 Silver
• Green Fish ~ approx 2k Silver
• Blue Fish ~ approx 5k Silver
• Yellow Fish ~ approx 20k Silver
• Orange Fish ~ approx 125k Silver

Once you catch a fish, it will have a price guarantee period with an expiry time on them. The longer you take to sell the fish, the lower the price will go until you reach 0% value and the fish can no longer be sold.

• Normal fish have a 24h (1 day) price guarantee
• Fish caught in O’dylita have a 36h (1.5 days) price guarantee
• Fish caught in Mountain of Eternal Winter have a 73h (3 days) price guarantee

Fish are sold to Trade Managers in towns and cities only.

Territory	Town	NPC Name
Balenos	Velia	Bahar
Serendia	Heidel	Suita
Calpheon	Calpheon	Wolfgang Harden Lindsiyana Herba
Mediah	Altinova	Quina
Valencia	Valencia City	Burita Allon Yis Kunjamin
Kamasylvia	Grána	Okiara
Drieghan	Duvencrune	Tikara
Mountain of Eternal Winter	Eilton	Bollona

Blue and Yellow fish can also be sold at an Imperial Fishing Delivery NPC for a higher price, but the NPC will only accept a certain amount of fish. You can find the nearest Imperial NPC by clicking on the Magnifying Glass in the top left next to your minimap and searching for “Fishing” in the search box.

For maximum profit, you would ideally want to sell your fish to the Trade Manager that is the furthest away from the origin of your fish. For each node between the origin of the fish is a ~3% price increase. This does not apply to fish sold via Imperial Delivery though.

You can also dry fish before they expire and this will preserve them, but then you can no longer sell them to a trader. Instead, they can now be sold on the Central Market, but they may not be worth much depending on the type of fish and the demand. Dried fish is used in cooking recipes.

You can also catch other items whilst fishing:

• Ancient Relic Crystal Shard
• Breezy Conch Seaweed
• Silver Key
• Bottle with a Note – check our guide for more info
• Torn Net – trash item, exchange x5 for Fishing EXP
• Fish Bones – trash item, exchange x5 for Crio’s Fishing Chair
• Snapped Rope – trash item, exchange x5 for 3k Silver
• Tattered Boots – trash item, exchange x5 for Crio’s Fishing Chair
• Fertilizer Sack – trash item, exchange x5 for Contribution EXP
• Broken Bottle Fragment – trash item, exchange x5 for Breezy Conch Seaweed

Fishing Mastery

Higher fishing mastery has the following benefits:

• Greater chance of catching the newly added Orange grade fish (Legendary fish) – worth 1 million to 100 million silver.
• Higher chance of catching Legendary Fish when Harpoon fishing – worth 50 million to 100 million silver.
• Higher chance of obtaining Ancient Relic Crystal Shards

Investing in Mastery gear is really not worth it unless you want to Harpoon fish or actively fish. However, you can still use your accessories from other Life Skill Mastery for an extra bonus.

Legendary fish can be caught in specific locations in both the freshwater and sea. They can be sold to traders for high prices but Imperial Fishing is unavailable.

Prize fish list

Fishing (Saltwater)

• Corvina – 1 million – Velia Beach, Mediah Sea, Valencia Sea, Arsha Sea, Nox Sea, Eltro Sea, Duvencrune River
• Blue Bat Star – 2 million – Velia Beach, Peyon Sea, Al Halam Sea, Valencia Sea, Arsha Sea, Nox Sea, Eltro Sea
• Golden Sea Bass – 3 million – Banto Sea
• White Grouper – 5 million – Ross Sea, Atanis Pond, Margoria Middle, Old Wisdom Tree, Tooth Fairy Cabin, Lake Flonder
• Albino Coelacanth – 3.5 million – Tooth Fairy Cabin, Lake Flonder, Atanis Pond, Old Wisdom Tree, Margoria South, Margoria Middle
• Black Eye Crab – 5 million
• Golden Albacore – 8 million – Heidel River, Banto Sea
• Footballfish – 10 million – Juur Sea, Arsha Sea, Nox Sea, Eltro Sea, Margoria North, Margoria Middle

Fishing (Freshwater)

• Pirarucu – 15 million – Heidel River

Harpooning

• Black Spotted Dolphin – 10 million – Ahrmo Sea, Peyon Sea, Zenato Sea, Altinova, Margoria North, Nox Sea, Valencia Sea, Sea of Silence
• Giant Black Squid – 50 million – Ross Sea, Margoria South, Margoria Middle, Margoria North
• Requiem Shark – 75 million – Margoria Middle
• Ghost Whale – 100 million, Margoria North (small area, not sea wide)

Hotspot Fishing

Hotspot fishing requires you to have a boat. Boats are essential because most hotspots are in the middle of the sea and move every 30 minutes. To get a boat you can either buy it off the central market or craft it yourself. For more information on boats have a look at our ships guide.

Hotspots have specific spawn locations but are completely random and only last for 30 minutes before moving to another random spot. They do not spawn in the Ross Sea, Margoria Seas, Juur Sea, or Vadabin Sea.

Hotspots are indicated by a school of fish jumping out of the water with seagulls surrounding it. If you are fishing inland on a river or lake you will only see the school of fish jumping out of the water.

Hotspots will only give you yellow fish of one type. For example, you may find a Grunt hotspot, where you can only catch grunt fish. Due to this, hotspots can be highly profitable.

There are also special Coelacanth hotspots. Coelacanth is an orange fish that is worth 125,000 silver. Unlike other hotspots, these Coelacanth hotspots will disappear after the first fish is caught. They spawn close to the ports of Velia, Epheria, and Arehaza, as well as a couple of spawns.

There is also a chance you can catch multiple fish with one cast on a standard fishing rod. If you hold down [SPACEBAR] and invest energy into your cast. With a maximum of 10 energy points, you can roll for a chance to catch multiple fish. If you combined this method with a Triple-Float Fishing Rod you have a chance to obtain 5 fish in one cast!

Where to AFK Fish

The most popular areas to AFK fish are:

• Velia Hotspot – [CLICK FOR LOCATION]
  • Safe Zone
  • Gives a good amount of yellow fish
  • Frequent but lower-value prize fish
  • Low drop rate of Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
  • Always Exhausted resources
• Tooth Fairy Cabin – [CLICK FOR LOCATION]
  • Safe Zone
  • High drop rate of Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
  • 2 possible prize fish with a low drop rate
  • Grana is closeby to sell your fish via Imperial Delivery
  • Good distance to Valencia if you want to sell your fish there
  • Usually Abundant resources
• Duvencrune – [CLICK FOR LOCATION]
  • Safe Zone
  • Decent drop rate of Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
  • Gives good Trading EXP if you don’t discard green fish
• Ross Sea/Margoria
  • Decent drop rate of Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
  • Prize fish drop in these areas with a low drop rate
  • Max distance to Valencia if you want to sell your fish there
  • Great if you have an Archeologist Map or can use Guild Command to Gather
• Banto Sea
  • Best spot for Fishing EXP
  • Low for money making

Fishing Byproducts

When catching any fish using a fishing rod, you have a chance to obtain an item called “Discarded Glass Bottle“.

You can then exchange x5 of this item at NPC Liana or NPC Crio, for other materials, or Contribution and Fishing EXP.

• Liana can be found in all major cities next to Jetina/Fughar/Stable Keeper. If you cannot find the NPC, use the “Find NPC” function to search for “Liana” (ESC Menu > Function > Find NPC)
• Crio can be found in Velia on the dock near the Storage Keeper

Fishing Leap Quests

The Fishing Leap Quest chain can be completed to obtain rewards and large Fishing EXP boosts.

• For example, completing the first quest in the chain “[Fishing Leap Apprentice 5] I Feel Exhausted Lately” can be completed once you are Fishing Apprentice Lv. 4 or higher, and gives approximately 50% EXP at that level.

The quests can be found in your Quest log (O) under the “Suggested” tab.

These quests are available once per character

Alongside these quests, you can complete the “[Leap] Honor to the Fishing Family” quests for additional rewards.

You must have completed the previous Fishing Leap quests on your current character to accept these additional quests.

• For example, to start the [Leap] Honor to the Fishing Family #1 quest you must have completed the [Fishing Leap Beginner 10] Bartering quest on the current character

These quests are available once per family.

Harpoon Fishing

Harpoon guns can only be made in the tool workshop on Iliya Island (Iliya Island 4-1) and are required for Harpoon Fishing. They cannot be repaired or enhanced. You will also need a Fishing Boat or Cog Ship (harpoons cannot be used on Epheria ships).

There are two types of Harpoons:

• Thin Harpoon
  • Durability: 30
  • Crafting Materials: Cedar Timber x1, Copper Ingot x4, Black Stone Powder x1
  • Level Required: Professional Lv.1
• Thick Harpoon
  • Durability: 40
  • Crafting Materials: Cedar Timber x2, Iron Ingot x7, Black Stone Powder x3
  • Level Required: Professional Lv.1

The minigame for the harpoon takes more time and is more challenging. The aim of the game is to shoot the fish that swims around by moving your mouse to aim and pressing [SPACE]. You only have a certain amount of harpoons and time to hit the fish and bring its health to zero in order to catch it.

To make a profit from Harpooning you really need at least 700 Fishing Mastery Points. Harpooning income relies completely on being able to capture prize fish and because of that, it can be quite inconsistent.

The best location to go to is Central Margoria sea (you can find where this is by checking out our map and adding the Sea Regions as an extra layer).

Video Guide

This Video and Written guide was created by our Contributor Ranjiko at BDFoundry and has since been kept up-to-date by our other staff.