Crimson Desert is a huge sandbox filled with activities, and one of them includes fishing!
There are a lot of different kinds of fish to find in Crimson Desert, and there are actually two ways to fish. The first one is with a fishing rod, of course. And the other method requires you to actually go into the body of water itself and grab fish with your cold, bare hands.
Here’s how to unlock fishing and how to fish in Crimson Desert.
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How to unlock fishing in Crimson Desert
The first opportunity to unlock fishing in Crimson Desert is near the beginning of the game. When Kilff exits the Abyss for the first time, you’ll come across a cutscene where Sebastian asks Kliff to follow him. Right as Kliff gets up from the log, look to your right and you should see a few people already fishing.
Go up to them and examine the fishermen, and the screen should turn blue. A bar will appear at the top left that says ‘learning in progress… – Fishing Rod.’ Once the bar fills up, a pop up tutorial will appear introducing you to the basics of fishing. However, you can’t actually do the fishing just yet.
Once you make your way to the first town of Hernand, you can go to the Provisioner’s Shop to buy a fishing rod, which only costs 15 copper pieces. If you missed the first opportunity to learn about fishing, you can hover your cursor over the fishing rod at the Provisioner’s Shop and still get the ‘learning in progress’ bar.
Then, head to any body of water to begin the process of fishing. Looks like you don’t even need bait!
How to fish using a fishing rod in Crimson Desert
To fish in Crimson Desert, you can seemingly walk near any body of water and cast your fishing rod out. Make sure you have it equipped by going to your menu. Then, pull out your tool/weapon wheel and select the fishing rod to equip it.
By the body of water, make sure to aim the rod with the left trigger button where you see a blue circle, not a red cross. Casting out rod when you have a red cross will just make Kliff automatically reel it in.
So once the rod is settled in the water, simply just wait until you see the line tug, or if you’re using a controller, feel it vibrate. Then press the corresponding button to hook the fish. On a controller, it’s the right trigger button.
In Crimson Desert, you’ll want to pull your rod in the opposite direction that the fish is moving. So if the fish is swimming to the right, pull your rod to the left. Failure to do so will result in your line breaking and the fish getting away. While you’re busy pulling, you’ll want to simultaneously reel it in by quickly moving the right control stick in a clockwise circle.
If you’re successful, Kliff will bring the fish in and you’ll get a notice about what kind of fish you caught.
How to fish using your hands in Crimson Desert
Ironically, fishing with Kliff’s bare hands is easier than fishing with the rod in Crimson Desert. The caveat here is that you’ll need to actually see the fish physically in order to catch it.
The process is simple really. Just go into the water, and spot a fish. Once you do, head over to it and you should get a button prompt to interact with it (E on keyboard, X on Xbox controller, Square on PS5). Press it and Kliff will catch the fish and put it into his inventory.
That’s all for now! If you’re looking for more Crimson Desert help, then check out our pages showing how to tame horses and how to steal successfully.
