Guide to Fishing

Fishing is an excellent way to make money in Black Desert Online. Not only can you actively fish, which involves a mini-game that can be quite addictive (trust me, I know), you can also fish while AFK to make good money when you need to be doing real life things (i.e. sleeping or working). That’s right, in Black Desert Online, you can stay logged into the game 24/7, and the game will actually reward you for doing so. In addition, you earn experience towards increasing your character level while fishing, although grinding mobs will certainly level you faster.

You can fish just about anywhere in the world that has an abundance of water, such as a river, lake or ocean. Popular areas will tend to get overfished, which will increase the amount of time it takes to hook one. You can also build or buy a boat and go out into deeper waters for even better catches, but as a beginner it probably best to stay on the shore and increase your fishing skill for a while as you learn the system.

Fishing Rods and Bait

In order to fish, you will first need to get a fishing rod. You can either get one as a quest reward, or simply speak directly to Crio in Velia (he is by the docks, and also gives you the Hunting daily). He will sell you a rod for 500 Silver and also has fishing daily quests to offer. The rod has a durability of 30, which should last you between half an hour and an hour of fishing, depending on whether you are playing the mini-game or AFK fishing (AFK fishing takes longer so you will lose durability at a slower pace).

Rods cannot be repaired (none of the tools can), but you can craft your own at a tool Workshop that is more sturdy and provides other benefits, such as increasing your chance of catching rarer fish.

You can exchange 5 fishing tokens at a Fishing Shop NPC to purchase bait that will give your fishing skill different buffs, such as decreasing the amount of time it takes to hook a fish, or increasing the chance of catching rarer fish. You can earn fishing tokens by exchanging common fish for them. You can also find bait for sale in the Mileage Shop (Mileage is earned as a daily login reward). While not required, bait can help the dedicated fisherman greatly improve his profits.

Fishing

To play the minigame, you must first equip your fishing rod, then cast it into the water by pressing the spacebar. The amount of time it will take to hook a fish is based upon how depleted the spot is. Typically, areas close to the dock can become exhausted very quickly, so if you are starting to fish in Velia, move West along the coast until you can find a spot where the fish are abundant. Be careful if you go to into a combat zone if you are level 30 or above, especially if you are AFK fishing, as you could get killed by another player.

Once your line is cast, you will need to wait until you get a bite. When this happens, you will see an icon of a fish appear on screen. Press the spacebar to start the mini-game.

A bar will appear with the left side in red and the right side  in blue.  The bar fills from left to right and then empties. The goal is to hit the spacebar while in the blue (the bar will fill from left to right 3 times before cancelling and forcing you to recast your line). If you manage to hit it at the end of the blue portion of the bar you will automatically win. If you don’t (don’t worry, it doesn’t happen often), you will need to press a combination of WASD keys, the number based upon how rare the catch is. If you do this before time runs out, congratulations, you have have won and may loot your catch by pressing “R”.

If you just want to AFK fish, simply cast your line using the spacebar, and let the game do the rest. You will notice that it will take a while for your character to react to the fish icon that appears on screen, which is why AFK fishing is slower than you immediately hitting spacebar once you see the icon. I typically Alt Tab back into the program once in awhile when AFK fishing and if I have a bite play the mini-game, but if you want to leave your character AFK for hours, as long as your rods durability holds and your inventory doesn’t fill up, you will continually fish. Near the top of your screen you have the option of checking a box that will discard low quality items. I suggest enabling this if you are going to be away for awhile.

What to do with your Catch?

If you have caught a fish, you can take it to the nearest Trade Manager to sell (in Velia, he is near the Northern Stables). If you did not catch the fish locally, you must have all the nodes from where it was caught to the town where the Trade Manager is located linked or you will only receive 30% of the trade value (that’s bad). You also have a limited amount of time to sell a fish once caught (around 24 hours) or it will spoil. Alternatively, you can “dry” a fish, which will reduce its value, but will remove the expiration timer. Your fish might be more valuable to you as a crafting ingredient, in which case you can keep it and use it in a recipe.

In addition to fish, you can also acquire other items which can either be sold on the Auction house, or kept for personal use. Some of the rarer items include keys allow you to open chests that you come across exploring the world. You will also come across Ancient Relic Fragments that can be combined (place 5 of them into a + formation in your inventory) into a Boss Summoning Scroll (with a 7 day expiration timer, so don’t create it if you aren’t planning on using it in the next week).

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