To start fishing in New World, players must grab their first fishing pole. To do that, you’ll need to craft one. A Tier One Wooden Fishing Pole is very easily made with the Engineering skill. It requires one Fiber and one Green Wood to craft. To get Green Wood, grab it from some bushes or chop down some trees using your logging skill, and to get the fiber, you’ll want to gather some Hemp.
As you start skinning, you’ll level up your tracking and skinning skills. To make tracking and skinning go faster, you’ll want to upgrade your tools and increase your tracking and skinning level.
How to fish in New World
As with many MMOs, New World has a fishing mechanic that requires input from the player in order to catch fish. To fish, press F3 near any body of water (or whatever key you have fishing bound to) to begin. Press and hold your Cast key, and a moving meter will show up. Releasing the button will set your cast range based on where you landed on the meter. Cast distance matters, so always try to aim for the farthest cast range.
Once a fish is close, it will say ‘Get ready!’, and then will show an icon when it is time to hook. If you click too early or too late you will lose the fish. Once you hook a fish successfully you’ll then see an icon that ranges from green to orange. Reel the fish in until the indicator turns orange. Once it does, let go for a bit and let it return to green before you start reeling in again. Once the white border around the circle completes, you will reel in the fish and see what you caught.
How to make fishing faster
To make fishing faster, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. Upgrading your tools, adding buffs, and optimizing your gear will all help level up your fishing skill faster. Casting in deep water will always level faster than casting in Shallow Water since the fish bite faster in deep water, so always aim to be fishing in deep water. When you throw out your line, your game will tell you whether you cast into shallow or deep water.
The Wooden Fishing Pole is only meant to be a starter tool and should be leveled up as soon as you can. You can level up your fishing pole by crafting an upgraded one or purchasing an upgraded one off of the trading post. Below are the main tiers of fishing poles.
- Wooden Fishing Pole
- Treated Wood Fishing Pole
- Aged Wood Fishing Pole
- Wyrdwood Fishing Pole
- Ironwood Fishing Pole
In order to craft the upgraded poles, you’ll also want to be upgrading your logging skill as you go, since with most of the woods you need to make the poles align with how you progress in your logging skill.
Early on you can craft the Treated Wood Fishing Pole by refining materials. You’ll need 12 Timber, three Coarse Leather, and three linen to craft the pole, and these materials are all easily accessible in the early stages of the game.
How to get Tier Five fishing poles
The three legendary fishing poles, the Legendary Azoth Fishing Pole, the Legendary Strength Fishing Pole, and the Legendary Tech Fishing Pole are all earned by completion of the questline, but the other Tier Five poles can be obtained from mobs. Below are where to find the poles and the suggested level for your character before you start looking for it.
- Corrupted Fishing Pole – Level 42 – Drops from Foreman Robertson in Great Cleave
- Angry Earth Fishing Pole – Level 46 – Drops from Parthenocissus in Restless Shore
- Lost Fishing Pole – Level 60 – Also drops from Smoothbore Samuel in Reekwater
- Ancient Fishing Pole – Level 60 – Drops from Smoothbore Samuel in Reekwater
Where to find bait
Fishing bait can be applied to your fishing rod in order to increase the biting speed or increase the rarity of the fish. Bait drops from certain enemies can be gathered by harvesting, or crafted using the Cooking skill.
There are different bait types for the kind of water you are fishing in. Salt Water Bait and Fresh Water Bait all have special bait that is used for either increasing the chance for rare fish or increasing the chance for bigger fish.
Salt Water Bait
- Fish Bait – Crafted with Cooking – Gives 150 percent increased chance to find bigger fish
- Snail Bait – Salvaged from Snails – Gives 300 percent increased chance to find bigger fish
- Electric Eel Bait – Salvaged from Electric Eels – Gives increased 500 percent chance to find bigger fish
- Cheese Bait – Crafted with Cooking or found in Provisions Containers – 47 percent increased chance for rare fish
- Nightcrawler Bait – Collecting Flint during daytime or dusk – Gives 70 percent increased chance for rare fish
- Glowworm Bait – Collecting Flint at nighttime or dawn – Gives 80 percent increased chance for rare fish
Fresh Water Bait
- Meat Bait – Crafted with Cooking – 150 percent increased chance to find bigger fish
- Clam Bait – Salvaged from Clams – 300 percent increased chance to find bigger fish
- Oyster Bait – Salvaged from Oysters – 500 percent increased chance to find bigger fish
- Bread Bait – Cooking or from Provisions Containers – 47 percent increased chance for rare fish
- Woodlouse Bait – Gathered from Bushes – 70 percent increased chance for rare fish
- Firefly Bait – Gathered from Briar Plants and Bulrush Plants – 85 percent increased chance for rare fish
Where to fish
The best way to find rare and big fish is at a hotspot. Once you discover a hotspot, it will be on your map when you want to go back to it. There are different tiers of hotspots that you can fish at from one to three stars. Different locations will host different kinds of fish, and depend on the region they’re in. These hotspots are visibly different in the water, so you’ll want to aim for them while fishing. Make sure you get to it quickly, because each hotspot only has so many fish in it.
Buffs, equipment, and charms
There is equipment you can equip in order to get a bonus while fishing. They are the Vengeful Fisherman’s Hood, Smock, Gloves, Pants, and Boots. Equipping the whole set will give you a 60 percent increased chance at catching rare fish, a 200 percent increased chance at catching bigger fish, a 9 percent increase in casting distance, and 100 focus.
Perks can be added to your fishing pole by using a specific item or by adding Azoth to your rod. There are 11 different fishing perks, and each of those perks has three tiers that give bigger boosts the higher the tier.
