Curiosity Lure
| Curiosity Lure | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tackle |
| Location | Quarry Mine; Skull Cavern; Volcano Dungeon |
| Sell Price | 500g |
The Curiosity Lure is the rare-fish tackle, and the only one that has to be taken from a monster rather than bought or made. Fitted to a rod it raises the chance that any given cast produces a fish rather than a lump of rubbish, and it leans hardest on the fish that almost never show up. The Crimsonfish, the Legend, the Mutant Carp and the Angler all become appreciably more likely to take the hook. So do the Stonefish, the Ice Pip and the Lava Eel down in the mines, and the strange catches from the Night Market submarine. For anyone closing out the fish collection or chasing a Legendary Fish, no other piece of tackle matters as much.
Use
The lure works on the roll that decides which fish bites, not on how long the wait lasts. Everything in the water gets its bite chance raised, and because the increases are proportional, the gap left over for trash shrinks a little. A rod with a Curiosity Lure therefore brings up slightly fewer soggy newspapers along with everything else, which is a pleasant side effect rather than the point.
Four groups of fish sit outside that general boost and get their own treatment, because the game handles them separately. The Legendary Fish are the headline: the Crimsonfish climbs from under a fifth to a quarter, and both the Legend and the Mutant Carp double outright from one in ten to one in five. The Angler gains a smaller step. Each increase carries across to the second-generation versions from the Extended Family quest, so the lure helps with the Son of Crimsonfish, Legend II, the Radioactive Carp and Ms. Angler too.
The mine fish get flat additions instead of multipliers. The Stonefish gains the most, the Ice Pip a little less, the Lava Eel less again, and since those three are caught by distance from land and Fishing level, the lure is effectively a free few percent on every cast into a mine pool.
The Night Market submarine ride is reshuffled rather than simply improved. The Spook Fish, the Blobfish, the Super Cucumber and the Pearl all become more likely, and everything else becomes correspondingly less likely, the Octopus included. Out on the beach with Magic Bait, the lure lifts each Night Market fish from a thin three percent to over ten, which is the single most dramatic effect it has anywhere.
The Goby, which lives in the waterfalls, gains a flat fifteen percent. The Glacierfish and Glacierfish Jr. are the exception among the Legendary Fish and keep their usual odds.
Upgrades
No recipe and no shop carry it. Mummies in the Skull Cavern drop one about once in a hundred kills, other special monsters down there and in the Quarry Mine occasionally hand one over, and breaking the boxes, crates and barrels in the Quarry Mine, the Skull Cavern and the Volcano Dungeon is the most reliable route of all. A deep Skull Cavern run with a staircase stack usually comes back with one or two.
That scarcity is the lure's real cost. Each piece still wears out after about twenty bites, so a serious Legendary Fish hunt needs several in the bag, and the only way to stock up is another trip underground.
A second Curiosity Lure on an Advanced Iridium Rod adds nothing at all, so the sensible pairing is one lure beside a Quality Bobber or a Trap Bobber.
Notes
The lure and Magic Bait are the standard combination for a collection run. Magic Bait opens the whole list of fish a spot can produce, and the Curiosity Lure then tilts that list towards the ones that are missing.
A fresh piece is worth a reasonable sum at the shop, but selling one is a mistake: gold is easy to come by in the Skull Cavern, and a tackle that only the depths supply is hard to replace.
A spare lure belongs in the fishing chest.
All Tackle and Bait
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Bait | 
|
- |
| Bait (item) | 
|
1g |
| Barbed Hook | 
|
500g |
| Challenge Bait | 
|
1g |
| Cork Bobber | 
|
250g |
| Curiosity Lure | 
|
500g |
| Deluxe Bait | 
|
1g |
| Dressed Spinner | 
|
500g |
| Lead Bobber | 
|
150g |
| Magic Bait | 
|
1g |
| Magnet | 
|
15g |
| Quality Bobber | 
|
300g |
| Sonar Bobber | 
|
250g |
| Spinner | 
|
250g |
| Tackle | - | - |
| Targeted Bait | 
|
0.1 × Fish Price |
| Trap Bobber | 
|
200g |
| Treasure Hunter | 
|
250g |
| Wild Bait | 
|
15g |