New World: Fishing - gathering New World guide, tips

This guide page is your guide to fishing in the New World. Here you will learn how to get a fishing rod and learn about the different types of fishing rods. You will also learn how to catch fish and what bait is used for.

Last update: 19 January 2022

Fishing in New World is a way of obtaining resources required to make food. It can also be a good distraction from combat or quests, as fishing is represented by a simple minigame. On this page of the guide you'll learn all about Fishing. First of all you'll learn how to get a fishing rod and how to catch fish. In addition to that we describe all baits, the best fishing locations and bonuses to fishing.

• How to get a fishing rod?
• How to fish?
• Types of rods
• Fishing spots - best places to fish
• Baits - obtaining better fish
• Fishing bonuses

How to get a fishing rod?

You're rewarded with a basic fishing rod for completing one of the first quests in New World. You can create better rods in the workshop with your Engineering skill or buy them from other players at Trading Posts.

How to fish?

After equipping the rod approach a water source and press F3. Then hold down the left mouse button to prepare.

You'll see a pointer indicating how far you'll cast the line. The further it goes, the easier the reel-in minigame will be.

After casting the line you must wait for the fish to fall for the bait. You'll be notified by an icon appearing on the screen. Be vigilant - the game will show you an alert telling you to prepare yourself, which means you'll have to lick the left mouse button in a moment.

Now you must reel the fish in. Clicking the left mouse button fills the bar around the icon - you must fill it completely. You must also pay attention to the icon inside the bar - it represents strain on the fishing line. If you strain it too much the fish will get away. As mentioned above - the icon stretches slower if you cast the line further, making it easier for you to get the fish. On the other hand it increases the time necessary to reel in the fish, which means catching them and developing your fishing skill will take longer.

Types of rods

Just like other harvesting tools, the fishing rods in New World are divided into 5 classes. The higher the rod's class, the further you can cast it. Better rods can also supply you with more benefits and bonuses while fishing. You primarily get materials for new rods with the Logging skill.

Class	Fishing rod	Casting range
1	Wooden Fishing Pole	12 meters
2	Treated Wood Fishing Pole	14 meters
3	Aged Wood Fishing Pole	16 meters
4	Wyrwood Fishing Pole	18 meters
5	Ironwood Fishing Pole	20 meters

Fishing spots - best places to fish

New World lets you fish at any water source, although the game also features special Fishing Hotspots. You can recognize them by their fish icons but they need to be found first - they'll start appearing on your compass as your Fishing skill develops. Fishing Hotspots are divided into three classes: Broad, Rare and Secret. Fishing in a particular spot increases your chance to catch fish of particular class.

Broad Fishing Hotspot:

1. Number of fish: 30
2. Fish respawn time: 20 - 30 minutes
3. Common fish chance: 45%
4. Uncommon fish chance: 40%
5. Rare fish chance: 10%
6. Legendary fish chance: less than 5%

Rare Fishing Hotspot:

1. Number of fish: 20
2. Fish respawn time: 30 - 45 minutes
3. Common fish chance: 0%
4. Uncommon fish chance: 65%
5. Rare fish chance: 30%
6. Legendary fish chance: 5%

Secret Fishing Hotspot:

1. Number of fish: 10
2. Fish respawn time: 45 - 90 minutes
3. Common fish chance: 0%
4. Uncommon fish chance: 20%
5. Rare fish chance: 70%
6. Legendary fish chance: 10%

As you can see, Secret Hotspots provide the biggest chance of catching legendary fish but it doesn't mean they're always the best fishing spots. They're obviously great if you want to catch high-class fish, but if you want to quickly upgrade your Fishing skill you should choose places with more fish and shorter respawn timers.

Baits - obtaining better fish

You don't need to use bait in New World but using it provides you with useful bonuses. You must use different bait for freshwater and saltwater with both categories offering bait that boosts your catch's size or rarity. You must apply bait before casting the line - open the bait menu with the R button.

You obtain bait in various ways. It can be created with your Cooking skill, found in supply chests or obtained when gathering plants.

Fishing bonuses

You can improve your fishing not only with better rods and bait but also by developing your Focus. Developing this attribute provides you with specific bonuses.

1. 50 Focus: +10% fishing line tension.
2. 150 Focus: -10% carried fish weight.
3. 200 Focus: +10% fishing line tension.
4. 250 Focus: +10% caught fish size.