Bait

Bait Items

Item		Power	Rarity
	Apprentice Bait Internal Item ID: 2674	15%	01*
	Journeyman Bait Internal Item ID: 2675	30%	02*
	Master Bait Internal Item ID: 2676	50%	03*
	Black Scorpion	15%	01*
	Buggy	40%	02*
	Hell Butterfly	15%	01*
	Julia Butterfly	25%	01*
	Monarch Butterfly	5%	00*
	Purple Emperor Butterfly	35%	02*
	Red Admiral Butterfly	30%	02*
	Sulphur Butterfly	10%	00*
	Tree Nymph Butterfly	50%	03*
	Ulysses Butterfly	20%	01*
	Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly	15%	01*
	Black Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Blue Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Green Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Orange Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Red Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Yellow Dragonfly	20%	01*
	Enchanted Nightcrawler	35%	02*
	Firefly	20%	01*
	Glowing Snail	15%	01*
	Gold Butterfly	50%	03*
	Gold Dragonfly	50%	03*
	Gold Grasshopper	50%	03*
	Gold Ladybug	50%	03*
	Gold Water Strider	50%	03*
	Gold Worm	50%	03*
	Grasshopper	10%	00*
	Grubby	15%	01*
	Blue Jellyfish (bait)	20%	01*
	Green Jellyfish (bait)	20%	01*
	Pink Jellyfish (bait)	20%	01*
	Ladybug	17%	01*
	Lavafly	25%	01*
	Lightning Bug	35%	02*
	Maggot	22%	01*
	Magma Snail	35%	02*
	Scorpion	10%	00*
	Sluggy	25%	01*
	Snail	10%	00*
	Stinkbug	10%	00*
	Truffle Worm	666%	03*
	Water Strider	17%	01*
	Worm	25%	01*

Bait is a group of items that is mandatory for fishing. When a fishing pole is cast, at least one bait item must be in the player's inventory; otherwise, nothing can be caught. Fishing poles will cast their lines with no baits, but there will be no "bites" and no catches. The bait item is only consumed once the player reels in the line with a catch on the hook. It is not consumed upon the player casting the line or the line being reeled in with no catch. Even when the player does reel in a fish, there is only a chance that the bait will be consumed.

There are several items that can serve as bait, and they must be obtained in different ways depending on the type.

• Most critters that are invertebrates (insects, scorpions, snails, worms) can be used as bait, and must be caught with the Bug Net, Lavaproof Bug Net, or Golden Bug Net.
  • The Truffle Worm is unique in that it is only used for summoning Duke Fishron. It cannot be used for ordinary fishing.
  • The Magma Snail, Hell Butterfly, and Lavafly can only be caught with a Lavaproof Bug Net or Golden Bug Net. When used as bait, they have the special property of allowing the player to fish in lava.
• Blue, Green, and Pink Jellyfish bait items are unrelated to the Jellyfish enemies. They are themselves caught via fishing.
• Apprentice Bait, Journeyman Bait, and Master Bait are acquired as rewards for completing quests for the Angler NPC, as well as from crates. Apprentice and Journeyman Bait can also be acquired through the use of junk fishing items (such as Old Shoes, Seaweeds or Tin Cans) in a Extractinator.

Bait power

Bait power influences the quality of the catch (see Fishing for details and other factors), as well as the chances that the bait item will be consumed upon successfully reeling in a catch: Higher bait powers mean lower chance that the bait item will be consumed.

The formula used to determine the chance if the bait will be consumed is as follows:

$\text{chance to consume} = \frac{1}{1 + \text{bait power} / 6}$, where $\text{bait power}$ is the item's listed bait power multiplied by 100 (e.g. 15 for Apprentice Bait).

The Tackle Box, Angler Tackle Bag, and Lavaproof Tackle Bag have a beneficial effect on bait consumption chance. With any of these equipped (they do not stack), the formula is as follows:

$\text{chance to consume} = \frac{1}{2 + \text{bait power} / 6}$

The following table lists exemplary chances for some bait items:

Bait type		Chance to consume
		Regular	With Tackle Box (or upgrades)
	Monarch Butterfly 5% bait power	54.56*1/1.833 (54.56%)	35.3*1/2.833 (35.3%)
	Sulphur Butterfly 10% bait power	37.5*1/2.667 (37.5%)	27.27*1/3.667 (27.27%)
	Julia Butterfly 25% bait power	19.35*1/5.167 (19.35%)	16.22*1/6.167 (16.22%)
	Buggy 40% bait power	13.04*1/7.667 (13.04%)	11.54*1/8.667 (11.54%)
	Tree Nymph Butterfly 50% bait power	10.71*1/9.333 (10.71%)	9.68*1/10.333 (9.68%)

It can be seen that the effects of the Tackle Box and its upgrades are less useful for items high in bait power.

As of 1.4.4 Gold Worms have an additional hidden reduced chance to be consumed, 1/20 (5%), this does not change the bait power so it does not give higher quality fishing catches compared to other gold baits

Notes

• If the player has multiple bait items in their inventory, they are used from the top-left slot of the inventory to the bottom-right. Therefore, the topmost/left-most bait item will be used first.
• Bait shares some traits with ammunition:
  • All bait items can be placed in the ammunition slots of the inventory.
  • The number of available bait items will be displayed next to fishing poles placed in the hotbar.
• Critters spawned by statues cannot be caught with any Bug Net, so statues do not aid in the collection of bait.
• When wearing Flower Boots, the chance that a critter will spawn after destroying flowers or grass is drastically decreased.

Tips

• While Ladybugs can be used as bait, doing so counts as consuming them, thus decreasing the player's luck. Given that luck affects fishing, this is quite unwise.
• Fishing itself can be a viable way of obtaining bait: Using Crate and Sonar Potions, and refusing common catches like Bass, the Angler Bait obtained from the crates is generally more than what was used, and Master Bait with its 50% bait power (and thus, durability) will rapidly replace any other kind of bait.
• However, gathering bait critters is fairly easy in the Forest, Jungle, or Hallow biomes. The options depend on biome and time of day.
  • The spawn rates and spawn caps of critters are affected by many of the same factors as those of hostile enemies, hence Water Candles, Peace Candles, Battle Potions, Calming Potions, and Sunflowers will affect critter spawns. As such, when attempting to farm critters, it is advised to use a Battle Potion and either hold or place a Water Candle nearby.
  • In all cases, nearby NPCs improve the proportion of critters as compared to enemies. Provided enough are nearby, they can even suppress enemy spawns completely, which results in critters being the only creatures able to spawn.
    • When in the Underworld or in Expert Mode, enemies may still occasionally spawn, even when many NPCs are nearby.
• Worms, Grasshoppers, and Jungle baits (Buggy, Grubby, and Sluggy) can be found while destroying background objects on the surface (see table below). If the number of bait critters on the map has reached its upper limit, no more will spawn. The three types of Jungle baits share a total upper limit of 8.
  • Flower Boots are an excellent means to farm bait. They work on all types of grass whose plants are suitable for spawning critters – regular, Jungle, and Hallowed.
    • A highly effective method is to stand in one spot while wearing the Flower Boots and repeatedly destroy the flowers beneath the player. Firing a Flare at the player's feet works well too. In both cases, the boots immediately cause new ones to grow.
    • Bait can be farmed by running across a stretch of grass with Flower Boots on, then removing the boots and destroying the flowers. This is a bit slow, but it remains the only way to produce bait on demand without relying on natural critter spawns.

Critter spawns from broken tiles

Critter	Short grass/plants	Tall grass/plants	Dirt piles	Spawn limit
Worms	0.25*1/400 (0.25%) chance per tile	0.5*1/200 (0.5%) chance per tile	16.67*1/6 (16.67%) chance per tile	5
Grasshoppers	1*1/100 (1%) chance per tile	2*1/50 (2%) chance per tile		5
Jungle baits	1.25*1/80 (1.25%) per tile in the Jungle	2.5*1/40 (2.5%) per tile in the Jungle		8 total

Fireflies and Lightning Bugs

• Fireflies spawn at night. They tend to congregate near NPC houses in the Forest biome and often spawn in very large numbers. In The Hallow, they are replaced by the superior Lightning Bugs. Their 20% bait power is modest but sufficient for early fishing, and they are comparatively plentiful.
• The spawn rate of Fireflies is randomly determined at the beginning of each night. Therefore, on some nights massive swarms will be encountered while on other nights very few will spawn. They tend to spawn in especially high numbers at the new moon.
• Fireflies will not spawn during rain, however, the Worm spawn rate will increase significantly.
• The Fireflies' spawn rate can be increased by building a platform in the sky high enough so that the ground is not visible. Because terrestrial critters have nothing to spawn on, more Fireflies will spawn. Remember that nearby NPC houses will help.
• Wings will speed up the job of catching Fireflies considerably. Lacking those, a network of interconnected platforms will also do the trick.

Worms

• Worms spawn in the Forest when it is raining. Spending a rainy day walking around NPCs can result in a lot of Worms.
• Worms will spawn only where rain falls onto grass, watch out for overhanging buildings.
• Worms cannot climb even a single-block "cliff". Standard placed blocks being square makes a perfect trap for them. It is possible to catch several dozen in one rainy day, by just collecting them in a hole at the end of a flat area. Note that the hole must be at least 2 tiles wide for the player to stand in and swing a Bug Net.

Trivia

• The names of the three bait types are based on the three ranks of craft guilds, Apprentice, Journeyman (or fellow), and Master (sometimes grandmaster).
• The Master Bait's name is a double-entendre on the word "masturbate". This is a common joke in the fishing industry, used by real-life fishermen, bait shops, and in numerous hook baiting tutorials.
• The reason Monarch butterflies have a low bait power is because in real life they are poisonous.

History

 PC version

• Desktop 1.4.2.3: Master Bait can now be dropped by Jungle Mimics.

• Desktop 1.4.0.1: Added 14 new bait items, including Ladybugs, Dragonflies, Water Striders, Maggots, and Underworld critters.

• Desktop 1.3.0.1:
  • Bait can now be stored in ammo slots.
  • Apprentice, Journeyman and Master Baits now have new sprites.

• Desktop 1.2.4: Introduced.