When I first started playing Wuthering Waves, I spent almost two hours running around Hanguang Lake trying to stab fish with my sword because I had no idea you had to unlock a fishing rod first. I needed 5 Cloud Silver Carp for an early side quest that rewarded a 4 star weapon, and I was this close to giving up until a friend explained the whole fishing system to me. If you’re in the same boat, stuck trying to figure out how to get fish in Wuthering Waves, this guide covers everything you need to know, from unlocking the rod to catching the rarest endgame species, no guesswork required. Fishing is one of the most low-stakes, relaxing activities in the game, and it gives you access to tons of useful rewards you can’t get anywhere else, so it’s well worth taking 10 minutes to learn how it works.
Prerequisite: Unlock Your Fishing Rod Before You Start
You won’t have a fishing rod in your inventory when you first start the game, and you can’t catch fish any other way, no matter how many times you swing your sword at the water. The quest to unlock the rod is called “A Fisherman’s First Request”, and it pops up in your quest log as soon as you hit Adventure Rank 12 and finish the “Departure from the Shore” main story quest. The NPC, Old Chen, is sitting on a wooden dock on the east side of Hanguang Lake, right next to the fast travel point, so you won’t have to go out of your way to find him.
He’ll ask you to bring him 3 units of wild grain, which you can collect from the grassy areas surrounding the lake, no combat required. Once you hand them over, he’ll give you the basic Iron Rod, a stack of 20 grain bait, and a quick tutorial on how to cast your line. You can't catch any fish until you complete this quest, so don’t waste time trying to gather fish before you hit AR 12. You can upgrade this rod later as you catch more fish: the next tier, the Steel Rod, reduces the chance of rare fish escaping by 30%, and the final tier, the Astral Rod, lets you cast twice as far, making it much easier to reach fish that are in the middle of large lakes.
How to Get Fish in Wuthering Waves: Basic Gameplay Mechanics Explained
Once you have your rod, equip it from the “tools” tab of your inventory, and you’ll see a small fishing icon appear at the bottom of your screen when you’re near a valid body of water. You don’t have to stand right on the shore, but you can’t be more than a few feet away from the water’s edge, or the game won’t let you cast. When you hold down the cast button, you’ll see a white arc showing where your line will land. Try to land the bait 1-2 feet away from the group of fish you’re targeting—if you cast directly on top of them, they’ll get scared and swim away immediately.
Once the bait is in the water, wait for a fish to approach. You’ll see small ripples first, then a larger splash when the fish bites. That’s when you press the hook button, not before. I can’t tell you how many times I wasted bait by yanking too early when I first started. Don't yank the line too early when you see the first ripple, that’s the most common mistake new players make.
Once the hook is set, you’ll see a circular meter with a moving green bar and a fish icon. Your job is to hold down the reel button to keep the fish icon inside the green bar at all times. If the fish moves outside the bar for more than 2 seconds, it will escape. The green bar will shrink for rarer fish, so you’ll need faster reflexes to catch them. Different fish react to bait differently, so always match your bait to the species you're targeting, or you’ll wait 10 minutes and not get a single bite. If you’re struggling with fast rare fish, you can eat a reaction speed buff meal before you start fishing to make the process easier.
Best Locations and Bait Combinations for Rare Fish
Once you get the hang of basic fishing, you can start targeting rare species that unlock higher tier rewards. The in-game archive will show you general locations for every fish you’ve caught at least once, but these are the most common species you’ll need for quests and ascension, plus where to find them:
- Cloud Silver Carp: Uses basic grain bait, found in shallow rivers across the starting plains, used for common cooking recipes and low-tier ascension materials.
- Thunder Eel: Uses insect bait, found in deep, fast-moving rivers near mountainous electro-aligned areas, required for ascension of electro Resonators like Jiyan.
- Moonlight Goldfish: Uses special fruit bait, only found in still ponds at night, rewards exclusive furniture blueprints when turned in to the angler NPC.
- Abyssal Shadow Fish: Uses worm bait, found in dark, cave water bodies near ruin sites, used to craft the highest tier fishing rod upgrade.
Bait crafting recipes unlock as you gain fishing mastery levels. You get 1 mastery point for every fish you catch, and every 5 points unlock a new recipe or upgrade. Basic grain bait only costs 2 units of wild grain to craft, which is super easy to farm, so you never have to run out of bait for common fish. Insect bait costs 3 units of firefly, which you can collect at night in grassy areas, and fruit bait costs 2 sunberry units, which grow on bushes across the map. Worm bait is the rarest, you can only get it from digging in soft dirt near river banks, or buying it from Old Chen for 100 Mora each once you hit fishing mastery level 5.
If you’re having trouble finding a specific fish location, open your map and look for the small fish icon—these are marked fishing spots that always have at least 3 different species spawning. You can also use your Resonance Vision to highlight fish in the water from farther away, which saves you time walking around checking every lake. Always check the time of day requirement for rare fish before you waste bait—many only spawn between 10 PM and 4 AM in-game, so you can adjust the time at any Resonance Point to skip waiting.
What to Do With Your Catch to Maximize Rewards
A lot of new players make the mistake of selling all their fish for quick Mora, but that’s almost always a bad call. For example, 1 Thunder Eel sells for 150 Mora, but if you turn in 3 Thunder Eels to Old Chen for his weekly quest, you get 100 Astrite, 5 resin refills, and 10 insect bait, which is worth well over 10,000 Mora if you were to buy those items separately. Don't sell your rare fish for Mora, the rewards from turning them in are always 3-4 times more valuable.
Many endgame Resonators need hundreds of specific fish to max out their ascension levels, so it’s a good idea to start stockpiling the rarer species long before you pull the unit you need. I learned this the hard way when I pulled Jiyan and had to spend 3 hours grinding Thunder Eels because I sold all the ones I caught earlier for extra change. The buffs you get from cooked fish meals are also nothing to scoff at. The “Crispy Fried Carp” dish gives you 20% extra attack for 30 minutes, which stacks with other attack buffs, and it only costs 2 Cloud Silver Carp to make. That’s a huge help for tough boss fights like the Sound of the Abyss, where every bit of extra damage counts.
If you’re someone who likes decorating your Dorm, you can also exchange rare fish for exclusive furniture pieces, like a wall-mounted fish trophy or a large aquarium that displays up to 10 of your rarest catches for your friends to see when they visit your world. You can also use extra common fish to make feed for the pets you unlock later in the game, so it’s worth keeping a stack of 50 or so common fish in your inventory at all times instead of selling them.
Fishing doesn’t have to be a frustrating chore, and you don’t have to waste hours running around looking for the right spots or bait like I did when I first started. Now that you know how to get fish in Wuthering Waves, you can take advantage of all the rewards the system has to offer, from ascension materials to exclusive furniture and buff meals. Next time you’re burnt out from running main story quests or fighting tough bosses, take a 10 minute break, head to your favorite fishing spot, and cast a line. You might even catch a rare shadow fish you’ve been looking for without even trying.