Talk:Fishing

Page Splitting
I don't think we should split the page into a million separate ones for each fish...

Perhaps merge the quest fish with the angler page?

That's good. That's OK. Let's just... not go overboard and split it all up. There's a difference between too few and entirely too many. RECCOMMENDED ORDERING: Quest Items -> Angler Potion Ingredients -> New Page Other Catchables -> New Page Plet53 (talk) 02:20, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

From a users point of view, the current layout lends to ease of use--it is simple to locate what can be found where, or where a specific fish is located. Preserving the sort-able tables through the proposed split would be wonderful.

I'm fine with having individual pages for each fish, as long as this reference page for every fish still stays. That way, you can put the basics here and put any details, references, trivia, etc. in the individual fish pages. FyreNWater (talk) 03:33, 14 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I think we'll end up with "natural" divisions as we learn more about this mechanic. There's the obvious division of where and how each fish can be caught, and then there's whether the fish is a potion ingredient or used for some other notable purpose, and then whether it's part of a quest (text of the quest on the angler page -> link to the specific fish -> description of how to catch), and then you have the stack of fish that basically get used for cooked fish and that's all. I'd counsel patience and boldness - if you can add significant detail to a fish or group of fish, split it off to a new page and add it, but if you're just going to stub out a picture and not add at least a paragraph or two of meaningful detail... hold off until you (or someone) can. I'd favour subcategories over individual fish pages, where it's meaningful. CDarklock (talk) 05:38, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm thinking we keep it as a single page - after all, having 30+ pages, each dedicated to a single fish, seems counter intuitive. It'd be like having a separate page for each type of workbench. 125.239.152.172 04:09, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Fishing Mechanics
Since I don't see a page here, and I'm curious as to how the fishing mechanic works, or what factors goes into it. I don't have nearly enough information to warrant adding onto the page, and I would personally like someone to help confirm my findings before it is posted on the page.

Anyhow, what I have found so far is mostly catch speed and catch quality. Speed is determined by the size of the body of water, and quality is how far away you are from the body of water. I have noticed that if I am standing almost next to the fishing bob, I get *much* more seaweed, boots, and cans than if I was at the farthest possible distance. Also, the larger the body of water, the faster the catch rate. I don't have any real numbers yet, but I have done ~40 trials for two different pools in the underground jungle using grasshoppers and the fleshcatcher. I don't know the exact size, nor the exact distance, aside from "maybe 10 blocks or less" to "a couple of underground pockets of water collected together" and "almost max range" to "next to bob". --Bluemofia (talk) 00:56, 15 May 2014 (UTC)


 * I've done some mild testing and added the results to the page in the form of half a dozen "Tips", though it's almost a guide now. In my experience timing and distance don't affect the catch at all. I've tried casting the line right under my character's feet while standing on platforms and the results are apparently the same. The size of the body of water does however influence the catch, and heavily so. The minimum of 75 tiles nets trash 3/4 of the time. 200+ tiles and you get no more junk, 1000+ tiles and you start getting the really good stuff like Salmons, Iron and Gold Crates in Forests. I hadn't paid attention to the time before a catch as a function of lake size, though... good catch, gonna add it now.
 * I didn't count how many times I cast the line, but it's probably reaching 200 by now. I must say, fishing in Terraria is surprisingly entertaining... and profitable with a large enough lake. --186.136.111.144 07:20, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

I guess the fits under fishing mechanics. What exactly does fishing skill affect and how does it differ from or influence fishing power? A logical assumption would be that higher numbers lead to greater productivity (better quality catches and/or shorter downtime between catches), but to what extent? Also, between which hours is it considered the beginning and end of each day in order for the 30% bonus to be applied? --173.66.29.113 19:29, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

Breaking fishing lines
One thing I haven't found yet in the code, and isn't described on the page right now, is what exactly determines when the fishing line breaks. From testing myself I've found that certain quest items can't be caught, at least not using purchasable fishing poles, without the high-test fishing line. I'm not sure if this is just by chance though as I've been unable to confirm in the code and no one else has been reporting their experiences with this. If anyone has any clues feel free to chime in.  Equazcion ( talk ) 15:30, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
 * The chance seems to be 1 in 7 for breaking the line when your bait is consumed. From what I can see a higher fishing level does increase the chance of catching certain fish, but it should be possible without. (Using the worst fish and worst bait some fishes are 60 times less likely to be caught than others.) --0icke0 (talk) 09:52, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Fishing Corrections
Some of the heights/biomes listed for fish are incorrect, according to what I've tested. After creating a Cavern layer, Purity biome fishing house pre-hardmode, fish caught (Using Sitting Duck fishing rod, Angler Earring, Fishing Potion, and peak times) were Armored Cavefish, Bass, Golden Carp, Specular Fish, and Stinkfish. Additionally, I was able to catch Guide Voodoo Fish and Hungerfish consistently in this spot (as well as other quest fish). After hardmode, the entire area was infected by Hallow. Since then the fish caught have been Bass, Chaos Fish, Golden Carp, Princess Fish, Prismite, Specular Fish, and Stinkfish. The wiki states Specular Fish must be caught in a Purity Biome, and Stinkfish in a "Forest" biome (will assume this is Purity), so I believe these are incorrect. At the very least, these fish can be caught in Hallow biomes as well (have not tested Crimson/Corruption, but I assume these fish can be successfully caught in any Biome so long as the height is correct). Additionally, I could no longer catch Guide Voodoo Fish or Hungerfish in that spot despite numerous attempts, even though the wiki states they can be caught in any Biome (other quest fish not tested, please help confirm this. It's possible I might've been incredibly unlucky with my fishing). Furthermore, having an Underground layer, Purity Biome fishing house allows me to catch Armored Cavefish and Specular Fish commonly, even though the wiki states they can only be caught at Cavern height or below.
 * There are indeed a few mistakes at the moment. Some which were introduced later. (See the old page here, not that that is completely correct, but for example Stinkfish is an any biome.) I'll see if I can correct some mistakes. --0icke0 (talk) 10:13, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Ok, I've checked the game code, which confirms that Armored Cavefish and Specular Fish can be caught in the underground too. Furthermore it seems that all fish (except for fish from lava/honey, junk, crates, Frog Leg, Zephyr Fish and those specific to the biome cannot be caught in a purity biome. --0icke0 (talk) 11:45, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
 * So we have to go to the corruption, crimson or hallow to get quest fish? – flying sheep 17:26, 30 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Addition: I just caught a Jewelfish in a cavern without biome. That’s purity the, right? That means this article is wrong!
 * No, I can say that's definitely incorrect. Look at what I originally posted. I have a Purity Biome, Underground layer fishing house that I use to catch Armored Cavefish. From what I can see on the updated list, every single fish currently marked as "Non-Purity" can in fact be caught in a Purity Biome, and some only within a Purity Biome. Whatever you saw within the game code is either outright wrong or was misunderstood. It's not hard to replicate these situations in-game, go and test for yourself if you have doubts.
 * Alright, I've rewritten the ugly decompiled code into a more readable form. (Hopefully I made no mistakes.) It seems I misread the code and that those fish could indeed be caught in purity biomes as well. I once again tried to look what may have caused you to be unable to catch Guide Voodoo Fish or Hungerfish, but no success there. Maybe you were indeed unlucky. --0icke0 (talk) 10:25, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

Neon Tetra (jungle fish)
I just noticed both in the game and in the wiki that this fish doesn't do anything, it's just for sale. Why is this the only fish without purpouse? an oversight from the devs? --EstebanLB (talk) 18:20, 2 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Huh, it seems you are right. How annoying, I was planning to make stew or something outta them. I guess it must be an oversight from the devs, if it was intended to be a useless item it'd have grey quality. NoseOfCthulhu (talk) 12:18, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Batfish - Can be caught in ANY biome?
Well, so the Angler asked for a Batfish as the daily quest. My world is in Hardmode and most of the good lakes are in the Underground Hallow, so I went there to catch it. The Wiki says the Batfish can be caught in any biome, so I thought there should be no problem. Well, in that lake, I caught about 50 Bass, about 50 Specular Fish, 15 Princess Fish, 5 Prismite, one Chaos Fish, 15 Wooden Crates, one Iron Crate and a Golden Crate... but no Batfish. Because time was running out, I quickly searched for a non-hallowed and non-corrupted lake, and found one. After catching several more fish and several trash, I got the Batfish after maybe 10 to 15 tries. Now this makes me think, are Batfish really catchable in any biome? Because usually, I get the daily Quest fish after no more than 20 tries... sometimes it's even my first catch. Or was I really just THAT unlucky? Smwforever45 (talk) 22:06, 6 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Played some more and I've had the same issue with the Jewelfish. Smwforever45 (talk) 15:52, 8 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately there seems to have been trouble with determining what biomes various fish are obtained in. Perhaps a solution would be to add "guaranteed" biomes to the list in cases where it seemingly provides erroneous info. NoseOfCthulhu (talk) 22:58, 9 June 2014 (UTC)