Tackle
| Tackle | |
|---|---|
| Type | Tackle |
Tackle is the second slot on a fishing rod, and it is where fishing stops being a test of reflexes and starts being a thing that can be engineered. Each piece bends one rule of the minigame: the bar grows, the fish escapes more slowly, the catch is better quality, treasure turns up more often, or the hooked fish announces itself before it is landed. Only the Iridium Rod and the Advanced Iridium Rod have the slot, and the advanced version has two of them, so late-game rods can run two effects at once. Tackle wears out as it works, which makes it a running cost rather than a one-off purchase. Most pieces are crafted at a Fishing level between six and eight, and Willy sells almost all of them.
Use
The Iridium Rod holds one piece; the Advanced Iridium Rod holds two. Attaching a piece means picking it up with a left click and then right clicking the rod. Taking one off is the reverse, with the small complication that any bait comes off first, so a loaded rod needs two right clicks. On a rod carrying two pieces, the left-hand one is always removed first.
Durability is the real constraint. A piece lasts about twenty nibbles, each of them marked by the word "HIT" appearing on screen, and then it vanishes. Nothing is lost when the line brings up Algae, Seaweed, Trash, Jelly or one of the special items, so a session spent dredging up rubbish costs nothing in tackle. A green bar on the icon shows how much life is left.
Each piece takes a full inventory slot, since tackle never stacks. Carrying three spares means losing three slots, which is a genuine nuisance on a trip that is also meant to bring back fish.
A rod with the Preserving enchantment from the Volcano Forge gives each nibble a half chance of leaving the tackle untouched, roughly doubling its working life. On the Advanced Iridium Rod that chance is rolled for each slot separately, so one piece can survive a nibble while the other wears down.
Upgrades
The Fishing skill opens the recipes in order. Level six brings the Spinner, the Trap Bobber and the Sonar Bobber, along with the Lead Bobber on Willy's shelf. Level seven adds the Cork Bobber and the Treasure Hunter. Level eight adds the Dressed Spinner and the Barbed Hook. The Quality Bobber waits for Willy's "Juicy Bugs Wanted!" special order, and the Curiosity Lure is found rather than made, dropping from monsters and smashed crates in the Quarry Mine, the Skull Cavern and the Volcano Dungeon.
Two pieces on an Advanced Iridium Rod always combine when they are different. Two of the same kind behave differently depending on the piece. Doubling up a Spinner, a Dressed Spinner, a Cork Bobber, a Treasure Hunter or a Quality Bobber doubles the effect outright, and a pair of Quality Bobbers lifts a catch two quality steps rather than one. A pair of Trap Bobbers slows the escape by half instead of a third. Pairs of Lead Bobbers and Barbed Hooks strengthen their grip on the bar without a clean number attached. A second Curiosity Lure or Sonar Bobber adds nothing at all, so those slots are better filled with something else.
Tackle is unusual among metal crafts in that it can be sold, both to Willy and through the shipping bin, and several recipes turn a profit. The Trap Bobber is the best of them, followed by the Cork Bobber and the Barbed Hook, with the Sonar Bobber and the Spinner adding a little. The Blacksmith profession, which raises the value of the bars themselves, eats most of that margin and turns some of the recipes into losses.
Notes
There is a well-known trick with the Lucky Purple Shorts. Dropped into a tackle slot they become the bobber, which bobs in the water as a tiny pair of purple shorts. In the first slot of an Advanced Iridium Rod they also stop the piece in the second slot from wearing down at all, which effectively removes durability from the game for anyone willing to give up a slot. The trimmed version of the shorts does not work.
A used piece sells for less than a fresh one, so a tackle that has been fished with is not worth carrying back to the shop.
For most of the game the Trap Bobber and the Cork Bobber are the pair that make the minigame easiest, while the Quality Bobber and the Treasure Hunter are the pair that make it pay.
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 |