How to fish
What you need to begin fishing is simply a fishing rod. Even the worst of the bunch, Old Fishing Rod, can be used. Paste Bait is not required when fishing, but it is very nice to have. What is Paste Bait? Well, it's bait that can be used when equipping a fishing rod before the casting of the line. It will provide you with +2 fishing speed, which will decrease the time spent waiting between you casting the line and the fish being hooked on the line. When you approach the fishing spot that you want to fish in, equip the rod and hit the space bar. Wait about 2 minutes or so and then you'll get a little moving fish icon above your head. This is when you know that you can reel it in through the mini-game. The first part of the mini-game is a small bar separated into two sides by a red line, that has a bar moving from 1 end to the other, and you stop it from moving by hitting space bar. This is a timing mechanic, as you need to time when to hit the space bar when the bar hits past the red line. Failing to hit the right side (past the red line) results in the screen saying "Failed" and you'll lose the fish. Hitting past the red line will continue the mini-game, but when you time it perfectly and hit space bar when the entire bar is full, it will say you got a "Perfect", which means you skip the second part of the mini-game completely. When you do hit the correct side and it moves on the 2nd portion of the mini-game, it's simply typing in the key sequence in order, before the decreasing white time bar below reaches zero. The keys for this sequence will be A, S, D, and W. Failing to hit just 1 key in the sequence, or the white time bar reaches zero, will result in a fail and you will lose the fish. When you do successfully hit the key sequence, it will catch the fish and bring up the loot inventory, asking you to collect or cancel it. Just simply press R, then off you go to cast another line!
Beginner's knowledge
Here's what you should know when you first start:
First thing you'll read is the resources at the top. The resources go from Abundant, Average, Not Enough, and Exhausted. Every fishing spot starts off at Abundant, but over-time if a fishing spot has been populated for several hours by a lot of people, eventually it will go down to average, then not enough, etc. What this does is slows time the time between you casting the line and getting a fished hooked on your line. This is bad because it'll slow down your efficiency and you won't earn as much money as fishing in a abundant spot.
Fishing rods (with the exception for Artisan Fishing Rods) are not repairable and will become useless when the durability hits zero.
There are different tiers of fishing rods. They go from: Old Fishing Rod, Fishing Rod, Thick Fishing Rod, Steel Fishing Rod, Golden Fishing Rod, and the Artisan Fishing Rods. Each tier have different rank/level requirements, have different durability, and have different effects.
Be patient. To fill a 64-slot inventory, you'll spend around 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes with a Thick Fishing Rod, if you're really good at fishing. If not, It'll probably be 2-3 hours. Don't worry about the money just yet, just learn the mechanics first.
To auto-fish (afk-fishing), just simply cast your line and go afk. Don't touch anything. Note: It will auto fish for you, but it will NOT continue fishing when your rod breaks, and it will not automatically switch fishing rods from your inventory if it does break.
There are 2 types of in-game costumes (not cash-shop) that boost fishing level, and certain foods can help with fishing as well.
Fish has a freshness timer, so the longer you hold onto it, the less value it has. The value won't decrease until past 2 hours and 25 minutes. Eventually, at 24 hours it'll be worth nothing.
Advanced Knowledge
Now that you know how to fish, let's talk about how to be efficient at it. First and probably most important thing is craft better rods. You want to fish like a god? Gods use the best rods they can equip. To obtain better rods, you need to setup a Tool shop in a city/town/node. The Tool shop will let your workers craft the fishing rods for you, and they will be available to pick up from that city's storage after it's finished. Tool shop level 1 allows you to craft Thick Fishing Rods. Level 2 will craft Steel Rods, and Level 3 will craft Golden and Artisan Rods. I cannot stress enough about how important it is to use better rods, because they help you fish better and faster.
Fishing Rods:
Old and Regular Fishing rods are the same tier, with 10 and 30 durability respectively, and are your basic rods. Not much to say about em except they'll get you to level 10 beginner.
Thick Fishing rods are green tier, are equip-able at Level 10 beginner, and have 40 durability. They provide a natural increased chance to obtain better fish, and they provide +1 Fishing Level (Speed). Fishing Level stat basically decreases the time it takes from casting your line to hooking the fish on the line for the mini-game. +5 Fishing Level will make your time between cast and hook to about 10 to 25 seconds, which depends on your fishing resource.
Steel Fishing rods are blue tier and require Level 5 Skilled fishing to equip, and have a naturally better chance than a regular rod to catch better fish. It has 65 durability, and +2 Fishing Level. *Golden Fishing rods are yellow tier, requires Level 1 Professional to equip, and are the best at speed fishing. It has 100 durability, +3 Fishing level, and has the same ability to have better chances to get better fish like the previous 2 rods. Golden Fishing Rod is the dream for anyone who wants to fish really fast, and really efficiently, while having 100 durability so you don't need to craft as many. Also, they're great for long term auto-fishing, as it has 100 durability. However, it's not the best for auto fishing because I personally prefer to keep these rods for when you're actually fishing, as the +3 Fishing Levels makes a big difference.
Artisan Rods (Calpheon, Epheria, Mediah, and the last one I forget the name) are the best fishing rods in the game, being equip-able at a monstrous Level 1 Artisan. Each rod has a default 50 durability, but they are each very special in their own way. The Artisan Rods are the ONLY fishing rods that can REPAIRABLE and ENCHANTED. This makes it so you don't need more than 1 of each Rod. Enchanting is the same as enchanting a weapon, so If you fail an enchant past +7, you'll need to repair the rod by sacrificing more rods of the same name. Enchanting each rod will give it different effects. The Calpheon Rod will give you a natural better ability to chance Better fish (already higher than all of the previous rods), while enchanting it 1 by 1 will increase that chance. Once it's +15, the chances of it getting better fish (i.e. blues and yellow) will be very high (I doubt you'll get anymore white or green fish). The Epheria Rod is simple: It starts off at 50 durability, but every enchant gives it 10 max durability. This is the most useful rod for long-term afk fishing (i'm talking like 7+ hours without breaking at +15) as it can go up to 200 durability at +15. The last rod (The name escapes me) just lowers afk-fish timers with enchanting. The standard time i'd take to auto fish is 3 minutes after the fish icon pops up above your character, but enchanting the rod will lower that timer and also increase durability by 5 everytime. Mediah Rod isn't available to NA/EU yet I believe, but it increases the chance to catch RARE fish (Coalacanth and other Rare fish).
If you're serious about fishing, you need to PLAN ahead when it comes to spending your points. Spend them into nodes that have Iron and Copper Ore, so you can collect materials early on to build the rods. You'll also need coal eventually, and then gold ore (gold ore can only be obtained by you through mining, but your gathering has to be professional in order to do this).
There are a lot of fishing spots in the world of Black Desert Online, and the spot i'm going to tell you is in no ways THE best spot in the entire game, but it is the best if you're starting off and can't craft a fishing boat just yet. I'm talking about the fishing spot in front of where you first kill the Imp Captain Boss, Red Nose. Just in the area that you kill him is a rather small sized fishing spot, divided into two sections. The right side belongs to the town of Velia, therefore it's not needed to connect any nodes to sell fish that is caught there. However, it's the most populated side of the two and the resources will deplete very quickly, so be careful. On the other side, there's the Coastal Cliff side. This side of the waters is owned by the Coastal Cliff node (Not the Coastal Cave), so you'll need to activate the Coastal Cliff node for the fish to worth full value. Note: You'll need to connect Coastal Cave before going to Coastal Cliff. This particular spot catches a variable amount of fish bones, fish hooks, white fish, two types of green tier fish, swordfish, sea eels, Morays, and Tilefish. The whites and greens are garbage, so unless you've a huge inventory, don't pick them up. Focus on obtaining the Swordfish, Sea Eels, Morays, and Tilefish, as these are the blues and yellows that you are looking for. What makes this spot so great is that blue and yellow fish are quite more frequent than other spots out in the ocean, and you can catch the ever awesome Coelacanth fish. In my 70 hours of beta, I caught 5 of em in the same spot. Once you catch one, your whole inventory's worth will be increased by a lot, as it's worth about 5 Tilefish. I have said previous that there are way more fishing spots than the one i'm describing, but this one just works so well, and you don't have to own a fishing boat.
Crafting a Fishing Boat
So, if you have seen the shipyard house in Velia during the beta, you saw the option to craft a Ferry Boat or a Raft. These are trash compared to the legitimate fishing boat that you can craft via Level 2 Shipyards in Epheria Port and Ilya Island. I recommend personally to do it at Epheria port, because it doesn't require you to have a boat to get there, and it's around 5-6 nodes away North-West of Calpheon. Now, why would you want to craft a Fishing boat? Well, it has a lot of inventory space, it lasts longer than the other ships, and it's just bad-ass and so rewarding to build it yourself, because you'll feel like you achieved something amazing. Currently in the cash shop, you can buy the 2k pearl boat skin set and it comes with the Fishing Boat License, and I just hate that. You can also buy a Fishing Boat License from the marketplace, but if that cash shop item is removed on launch, then you'll have to wait a long long time for someone to make a license to sell.
What is required for the boat:
Materials needed for this boat will be 50 Birch Plywood, 25 Bronze Ingots, 30 Black Stone Powder, 25 Usable Scantling, and 30 Pine Sap.
Purchased the previous houses in Epheria Port to reach the Shipyard house, a mineral workshop (if you don't have the knowledge from quest series to process it yourself), a wood shop to make plywood (if you don't have knowledge from question series to process yourself), a refinery to make black stone powder,
At least 7 workers in total, collecting ore, chopping birch timber, building the ship together, gathering potatoes/wheat to make beer to feed workers (this should already be done if you're beginning this project). Recommended to use AT LEAST Skilled or better workers, for maximum time efficiency (Building a Boat in NA will take 3 times as long as the KR/JP/RU servers due to energy costs on processing).
Gathering/Processing rank/skill recommended to be around at least skilled, but apprentice is absolute bare minimum. Make sure you use tools that are appropriate to your ranking/skill level.
Willpower, Time, and a LOT of energy points. I cannot stress enough how long it takes to craft a fishing boat. On KR, it took me several days (playing around 12 hours, staying online for 16-17 for workers to keep working) to gather all of the materials, process them, and I hadn't even begun to build the ship yet. The actual ship building takes around 18 to 24 hours with skilled/professional workers. In NA and EU, due to the energy cost on processing, it will triple the time it takes to craft the boat, because there is so much material processing and gathering to be done.
Now that you know what you need to build it, I will tell you how. First thing you should do if you plan to make your own fishing boat when starting on launch is get as many contribution points as possible so you can setup a network of workers to gather copper ore and potatoes. This is super important to do it early because you'll need about 600 copper ore to make 125 melted copper shards, to make 25 bronze ingots, and you're saving yourself time later. Next, try to level your gathering. You can only obtain regular timber from chopping any type of tree, so do it early. You'll need around 100-125 pieces to make 25 usable scantling. Then, you need to mine rough stones to make into black stone powder. Next, quest and get to Calpheon. The area around Calpheon is where you'll get most of your other material like birch timber, Tin ore, Pine Sap. To make 50 plywoods, you need 500 planks because 1 plywood = 10 planks. To make 500 planks, you'll need around 1800-2500 pieces of birch timber (depends on your processing level, could be lower than 1800) because 1 plank = 5 timber. To make bronze ingots, you'll need 125 melted copper shards and melted tin shards, which is around 600 ores each (lower if you got good processing). Pine sap is easy to gather, just go north-east of Calpheon into the narrows woods and there are a ton of pine trees. Bring several fluid collectors. Now that you've got all of the material you need, you need to move ALL of it to Epheria Port (unless you're using workers from Calpheon, then keep section of the ship's materials in Calpheon per Calpheon worker), and then proceed to the building part. You'll need to assign at least 5 workers to build the whole ship, as each part needs to be assembled individually. Once they are all done, you go pick up the License from your storage and BOOM! You've got yourself a fishing boat. Note that fishing boats, like wagons, have a lifespan, so eventually (a long long eventually) you'll need to make/buy a new one.
How to make Millions of Silver Everyday
Just a fair warning, Fishing is a really good way to make money, but it isn't the best. Its like top 3 in terms of making money, but its the best way to earn money early in the game. To make the millions of silver that I can make everyday, you'll need a few things. Fishing rods up to your rank/level, a wagon with a lot of slots, Paste Bait if you got any, and energy points to bargain your trade manager. First, you need to know that Fish are trade items, so they are only sold to Trade Manager NPCs. Secondly, every single trade manager has a difference price. The price they give you depends on a multitude of factors, like distance bonus, how many of that same fish has been sold to the NPC previous, freshness of the fish, and what type of node/city they're in. i.e farms will have no need for fish, so they will pay a little less than a city's trade manager or a fishing port. I have a set of rules that I follow pretty strictly for me to succeed in making a lot of money.
My personal rules in order of priority:
1: You MUST have connected the origin of your fish (the node you caught it from) to where you're selling it. If you do not follow this absolute rule, you'll receive a 70% value penalty to every single fish you attempt to sell. This is by far the most important rule to any sort of trading with trade managers, so it will the number 1 rule for making millions.
2: Try to sell as far away as you possibly can from where you caught it while still obeying rule 1. Trade Managers will factor in a distance bonus, which is about 2% every connected node (cities/towns count towards this value, so they are treated as a node, even tho they are not nodes), so if you are selling farther than 8 nodes, you're already breaking a 130% value if you assume the fish will have 115% value.
3: If you know for a fact that people have been selling the same fish you've been catching to the same trade manager than you plan to sell to, don't sell it to them. If a trade manager is over-sold a certain fish, they will drop the value of that fish, which can go down to 80%, which is not what you want at all. It's far better to go to a node that you guess or know that people haven't been selling to. For example, if you fish in Velia, and you sell that fish to the trade manager in Velia, and 10-20 other people are doing the same thing as you, the NPC will give you like 80-95% only. But, if you go to Heidel, you'll probably get a better price.
4: Sell fish as fast as possible. All fresh has a freshness timer, and the value of your caught fish will go down if you keep it for too long. 2 hours and 25 minutes will keep your fresh at 100%, while 5 hours will drop it down to about 85 to 80, then it continuously drops til it reaches zero , at 24 hours.
5: Use a wagon. It's better that some of your fishes go to 95% value than missing out on selling 8-20 extra fish (depends on wagon).
6: When traveling with your fish, try to take the most efficient route to your destination. It will save you time from going there and going back, and it'll add up.
7: If you find trade manager "A" along the way to traveling to Trade Manager "B", and Manager "A" offers you 130% for your fish, you need to calculation your distance bonus + how much you think "B" will offer you. If the % total amount that "A" is giving you is more than what you think "B" will give you, sell it to "A". Manager A is closer to where you caught it from, so its a efficiency calculation and guesswork. This rule collides with rule 2, so it's all depending on situation.
With good efficient time usage, the proper tools, using your knowledge of the trade system, and good fishing mechanics, you can make millions of silver every day just like the pros and gurus of fishing. If i have anything to add to the guide, I will edit it in.
Tip 1: The auto-fishing Artisan Rod increases by 5 durability while enchanting it.
Imperial Fish Trading
Imperial Fish Trading is a different NPC from the Trade Manager, as they will buy only blue to yellow fish off of you at a very very high price (200-250%, no distance bonuses). The downfall to using the Imperial Fish Trader is that he or she will only buy a certain limited about of your fish (around 25-32 fish). Take advantage of the Imperial Fish Trader when you find the opportunity to do so, because that increase in value is very high and often very worth it, even if you have to travel far for it. The limit resets every 3 or 4 hours I believe. They may or may not include the Imperial Fish Trader NPCs on launch, but if they do then take advantage of that sweet % value.
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