Fishing is a timeless Terraria activity. The early game potential to get your hands on powerful loot makes it worthwhile, with the chance to pick up some serious gear like the Reaver Shark, Rockfish, and the Frog Leg. These are some of the best Pre-Hardmode items you can get.
There are eleven Fishing Rods in the game, ranging from your simple wooden rod (because every fisherman has to start somewhere) all the way up to the Angler’s Golden Rod. That Golden Rod is worth it if you can stomach the Angler’s bad attitude.
8 Reinforced Fishing Pole
Yes, we’ve skipped right over the wooden fishing pole. You’re better off angling (get it?) right for the Reinforced Fishing Pole for very early game fishing. It’s easy to craft and has a fishing power of 15 percent. You won’t get any completely crazy loot, but if you want to make an early start on those fishing quests you might as well craft it.
7 Fisher Of Souls Versus The Fleshcatcher
These fishing rods are crafted with the Crimson or Corruption bars. The Fleshcatcher is ever so slightly better than the Fisher of Souls, so if you have a Crimson world you’re at a small advantage.
Both rods are crafted with 8 of their respective bars, Crimtane or Demonite. The Fleshcatcher has 22 percent fishing power, whereas the Fisher of Souls has 20 percent. Worth crafting these rods if you’ve got some bars left over after your armor sets.
6 The Scarab Fishing Rod - Only Found In The Oasis
This is a fairly rare rod, as it’s only found in the Oasis mini-biome on the desktop and mobile version of Terraria. It’s yet to be added to console, although with the upcoming 1.4 update for console Terraria, it should appear soon. The rod appears in both Mirage and Oasis crates.
It has a fishing power of 30 percent on desktop and 25 percent on mobile (we’re not sure why they’re different either) which makes it better than both the Fisher of Souls and Fleshcatcher by a small margin.
5 Mechanic’s Rod
The Mechanic’s Rod is the next big up upgrade on the Corruption, Crimson, and Oasis rod. It has a fishing power of 35 percent on desktop, and a little lower at 30 percent on every other platform.
The rod is only available from the Mechanic NPC (found in the Dungeon after defeating Skeletron) for 20 gold coins. It can only be purchased once the Angler is living in your village or when the moon is at a certain stage.
4 Sitting Duck’s Fishing Pole - The Traveling Merchant
The Sitting Duck Fishing Pole, a nice play on words with Sitting Bull, is a very rare drop from the Traveling Merchant. It is only available after defeating Skeletron, and even then, your merchant isn’t guaranteed to have this item.
We haven’t seen it very often, so it’s always worth checking if your Traveling Merchant has one in stock. You can’t get a better fishing rod in Terraria unless you complete Angler quests. Sitting Duck’s Fishing Pole is pretty good, as well. It has a fishing power of 40 percent, which makes it the third-best fishing rod in the game.
3 Hotline Fishing Hook
Um, don’t worry about the name, this is actually still a fishing rod. It is the first rod that can fish in lava as default (although you can using the Lavaproof Fishing Hook if you want to use another rod in the Underworld) and is only available via completing Angler quests.
It has a 1/75 chance of dropping from the Angler after completing 25 quests, and it can only drop in Hardmode, which means you’ll need to defeat the Wall of Flesh. You can complete quests in the run-up to Hardmode to be in with a chance of getting the Angler. Every 25 quests count, so you better get fishing.
2 Golden Fishing Rod - Best Rod, But A Complete Grind
So the Golden Fish Rod is the best rod in the game with a fishing power of 50 percent. It’s also the most frustrating rod to get your hands on. The way it works is like this: you have a small chance of getting it as an Angler reward after exactly 30 completed quests. Those quests stack, so at 60, 90, and so on.
There is a tiny chance of getting the rod after 75 completed fishing quests, about a 1/250 chance. You can see why this is probably the rarest rod in the game. Although not all the Angler quests are difficult, some of them take ages and require you to jump from one part of the map to the other.
1 Best Fishing Accessories In Terraria
For the ultimate fishing trip, you’re going to want some of the game’s best fishing accessories as well. All of the fishing accessories are available Pre-Hardmode, so that’s nice.
You probably want to start off with the three basic fishing accessories from the Angler: the High Test Fishing Line, the Angler Earring, and the Tackle Box. You can then combine these into one ultimate accessory, the Angler Tackle Bag.
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