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What Is Fishing in Stardew Valley?
One feature that makes Stardew Valley really appealing to players is its relaxing yet nostalgic thematic graphics. Backed up with the soothing background music, it is such a therapeutic game you would want to play without being pressured by ranks and competitions between you and other gamers.
However, some quests and activities could be somehow frustrating given that they could be too repetitive or simply, frustratingly hard. Among these is Fishing in Stardew Valley, Fishing could be defined in two ways: one, a skill that is associated with catching fish using a rod; second, a mini-game with the objective of catching a fish with a fishing rod.
The fishing mini-game is not as simple, though not as hard as it sounds. But, you would surely need an adequate amount of patience, practice, and…more patience,
Fret not, farmers! Here’s a guide for you to have enjoyable and successful fishing, all the while familiarizing yourself with other fishing-related things.
Guide for Fishing in Stardew Valley
As mentioned earlier, fishing isn’t as simple as throwing hooks onto the water and pulling it back with a humongous catch at the other end, biting the bait. Instead, it is composed of two crucial steps.
Casting
The first step in fishing in Stardew Valley is, of course, to propel your fishing rod into the water. Any body of water in Stardew Valley is applicable for fishing, giving you a great number of avenues for catching fish.
Upon casting the fishing rod, a meter that continuously moves back and forth appears above your head. A good cast would be performed if you release the rod when the meter is on the green side while a poor cast would be initiated if the meter falls on the red part. As much as possible, be adamant in achieving a “Max” cast instead of one that just falls on the green side because a Max cast would, needless to say, produce a significant casting distance, hence a higher chance of getting a better quality of fish.
Also, when aiming your cast, you would want to try directing the rod into a pool of bubbles in the water. These bubbles excite the fish, in turn, make them bite on the bait more easily. Fish caught within the pool of bubbles also have a higher chance of rarity.
If the pool of bubbles seems to be out of the way or not on the line of reach of the rod, take note that you can alter the line’s placement mid-cast using the movement controller keys. This provides you with better aim control and allows casting diagonally by 1 tile.
Once you successfully settled in casting your fishing rod, just sit awhile and wait for an exclamation point above your head. This would mean that a fish has finally taken the bait.
Catching
Generally, a fish bites your bait between 0.6 to 30 seconds. The bite time is totally unpredictable so you really have to watch out for an exclamation point that appears above your avatar’s head. Once it appeared, it means that you can finally reel in your fishing line and the second step of the mini-game commences.
The catching phase in fishing basically aims to keep the fish from escaping until you had completely reeled in your fishing rod.
Another meter bar would appear, this time, side by side with your avatar. It consists of two progress bars, a bigger and a slimmer one. The bigger progress bar found on the left displays a fish icon and a green bar, called a Fish Bar. You have to make sure that the fish stays inside the Fish Bar until the slimmer progress bar on the right side is full.
Successfully filling the left progress without the fish leaving the Fish Bar, then, that means that you had a Perfect Catch and the name and other details of the fish you caught will be shown at the top of your head.
Fishing Rods
The success of your fishing does not only rely on your skills, focus, and patience. You will definitely need a quality tool to help you secure a good catch. So, here’s a preview of the different available rods in Stardew Valley.
Training Rod
The training rod is the most basic fishing rod in the game. It is also the easiest to use, however, you could only catch common kinds f fish with it. It costs 25 gold at Willy’s Fish Shop.
Bamboo Pole
The quite upgraded version of the Training Rod is the Bamboo Pole. Similar to the prior type of fishing rod, it can also be bought at Willy’s Fish Shop for 500 golds however, it would only be available once you finished the To The Beach Quest.
Fiberglass Rod
After reaching Level 2 in your Fishing skills, the Fiberglass Rod will be available at the same shop for 1,800 golds. So, what sets this from the two preceding rods is that you can equip it with bait, attracting more fish.
Iridium Rod
Iridium Rod becomes available in Willy’s Fish Shop once you had a Fishing Level of 6. It costs 7,500 gold and could be accessorized with bait and a tackle.
Tackles are also tools to make catching fish easier and there are 9 craftable tackles in Stardew Valley. Namely, these are the Spinner, Dressed Spinner, Trapped Bobber, Cork Bobber, Lead Bobber, Treasure Hunter, Barbed Hook, Curiosity Lure, and Quality Bobber.
Fishing-related Professions
It is a known fact in Stardew Valley that once you reached skill levels 5 and 10, you are to choose a profession that comes with different perks.
On Fishing Level 5, you are to choose between a Fisher which makes the value of fish 25% more and a Trapper which reduces the resources needed to craft crab pots.
On the other hand, reaching the maximum skill level gives you the following choices: If you picked the Fisher profession earlier, the option would be Angler which grants 50% more worth to the fish, or, Pirate that twice the possibility of finding a treasure chest during fishing. While, if you happen to decide on venturing into the Trapper profession, the options are between Mariner which disables crab pots from producing junks; and Luremaster which renders crab pots needing no bait.
Legendary Fish
To add more excitement to your fishing in Stardew Valley adventure, there are five legendary fish in Stardew Valley that have extreme difficulty to catch, hence being called legendary. The names of these fishes with their respective locations are listed in the Lost Book entitled Secret of the Legendary Fish.
But, to give you a tip, these are the names of the five legendary fish: Crimsonfish, Angler, Legend, Glacier, and Mutant Carp. So, you will know that you caught a legendary fish once you noticed that the fish on the Fish Bar wears a crown.
