Fishing has been considered a great leisure activity for people throughout the ages, and a means of survival for those living in rivers, the coastline, and islands. Many artists have praised fishing and left poetry and pictures which celebrated fishing. Such taste can be enjoyed within the world of Black Desert as well. Fishing is not just a way to catch sea food, but it is also an activity of recreation and relaxation.

You do not need to buy a fishing rod in order to enjoy fishing, as your character has a basic fishing rod equipped by default. However, if you purchase or create a better fishing rods you will be able to fish longer and catch more rare fish.

By using floats on fishing rods you improve the chance to get more of a specific type of fish, be it considered a bigger or rarer fish. Like with fishing rods, these fishing tools can be obtained as quest rewards, crafted in town workshops, or purchased in the Central Market.

You can fish anywhere there is water: swamps, small creeks, lakes, rivers, the coastline, or the open seas. You can also get on rowboats, fishing boats, and bigger boats to fish while at sea. However, you won't be able to fish in water that is too shallow.

Equip a fishing rod and certain UI elements will show up in the upper part of the screen. These let you know the state of fishing resources in the area, and give you a couple options: to not be carried away by other Adventurers' ships, and to select which grade of fish you do not want to obtain. We recommend all Adventurers to have the first option toggled on.

Regarding the grade of fish to discard, it becomes available as you level up the fishing life skill:

In a location where a lot of Adventurers are fishing, the fishing resources available get reduced. As this happens, the time it takes to fish will become longer. You can check the fishing resource status right away when you equip a fishing rod on the top part of the screen, just above the fishing filters. You can also open the World Map screen (hotkey: M) and look through the Territory Resource Information tab. The different types of fishing resourcer you will find are the ones listed below:

If you fish often, you will obtain fishing EXP, and with time your character's fishing level will go up. As your fishing level goes up, the chances for fishing better graded fish will also go up.

The kind of fish you can get is different for each territory. Fish obtained is regularly used as a cooking or alchemy material, but it can also be considered an expensive trade item depending on the rarity of the fish. Most fish have a price guarantee timer on them. The more time passes, the less valuable the fish will be, and after the timer runs out, the fish will be considered expired and won't be usable for any purpose. An expired fish can only be thrown away, or sold for no silver. If you want to preserve your obtained fish for use as a cooking ingredient, you can dry them via processing (hotkey: L). Via this method you can keep the dried product regardless of price guarantee, but it loses its status as a trade item.

If you still want to use the dried fish as a trade item, you can later turn it back into a trade item by packaging it into boxes at a town workshop.

◈ Energy consumption gauge

You can increase your chances of catching higher grade fish by spending energy while using your fishing rod. If you hold the Spacebar, you can charge the gauge using up to 10 energy points. The more energy you consume, the higher your chances of catching additional fish. This charge process is represented by the fishing rod icon highlighted in the image below (the longer you hold the Spacebar, the fishing rod icon fills with a red charging indicator).

If you are worried about filling your character's inventory with low grade fish during auto-fishing, you can select the grade of fish you wish to keep, as detailed above. You can also use the function ¨Do not board other adventurer's ships¨ if you mark the checkmark.


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The fish guide contains information about the fish you can get through fishing. Only the fish you have gotten yourself is shown in the guide, and you can look at the knowledge entry, how many times you have caught that fish, the maximum size of the fish you have caught, and the leaderboard for the biggest fish of each type you have caught.

The guide will be updated whenever you catch a fish bigger than your previous record. However, if you log off as soon as you catch the fish, there is a chance that your data might not be saved. The leaderboard will show the Adventurers' name of those that caught the bigger fish, and for those that caught same sized fish, the Adventurer who caught that size first will be ranked higher.

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An icon is displayed when a fish larger than your max record is caught. You can press the icon to open the "New Max Size" window, where you can check the type and size of the caught fish.

Click this icon to see your new max record fish.

You can access the fish guide by going into the main menu (hotkey: Esc) → Life → Fish Guide.

With the information given in this page you are now ready to experience the essence of fishing in Black Desert's world on your own. However, if you want to know more about this life skill in detail, we recommend you check the [Advanced Fishing Guide] page.

*The content of the game guide may differ from the actual game content, depending on the update and content changes.