Worm Bin
| Worm Bin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Crafted Item |
| Recipe | Fishing (Level 4) |
The Worm Bin is a box of worms that hands over a fresh batch of Bait every single morning and asks for nothing in return. Fishing level 4 teaches the recipe, and after that the farm's bait problem is solved for good. Bait halves the wait between casts, cuts down on junk and is the one thing a Crab Pot cannot work without, so a fisher who runs out mid-morning loses a whole day. One bin covers casual fishing, a row of them keeps a dozen crab pots baited, and feeding a bin thirty Moss upgrades it into a Deluxe Worm Bin that produces the much stronger Deluxe Bait instead. For a farm that fishes, it is one of the best returns on a handful of bars.
Recipe
Reaching Fishing level 4 teaches the recipe. Each bin takes fifteen Hardwood, one Gold Bar, one Iron Bar and fifty Fiber. The bars are smelted in a Furnace from ore and Coal. The Hardwood is the slow half, since it only comes from stumps and fallen logs, and the Secret Woods regrows a few stumps every day for anyone who makes the trip. Fifty Fiber is a scythe pass through a weedy corner.
A free one also comes out of the Community Center. The Fish Farmer's Bundle in the Pantry, one of the bundles that only appears in a remixed save, pays out a Worm Bin for two of its three items: fifteen Roe, fifteen Aged Roe or a single Squid Ink.
These are the ingredients one batch needs.
| Name | Image | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Hardwood | 
|
15 |
| Gold Bar | 
|
1 |
| Iron Bar | 
|
1 |
| Fiber | 
|
50 |
Use
Once the bin is placed it works on its own. Four or five pieces of Bait appear in it each morning, and the worms need no feeding, no water and no attention of any kind.
Bait earns its keep in two places. On a rod it shortens the wait for a nibble by half and reduces the chances of hauling up rubbish, which turns a fishing afternoon into twice as many catches. It has to be attached to a Fiberglass Rod or an Iridium Rod, since the starting poles have no slot for it. In a Crab Pot it is the fuel: a pot is dropped in the water, the bait is applied to it, and the pot is emptied and rebaited the next morning.
Placement is worth thinking about. The bin works anywhere, on or off the farm, so a line of them on the Beach sits right next to the crab pots they supply and saves carrying bait down from the farmhouse every day. The usual warning applies, since anything standing in a villager's walking route gets flattened.
The specialist baits sit above what the bin makes, and they all behave as ordinary Bait once they are inside a Crab Pot. Wild Bait, learned from Linus, gives a chance of landing two of the same fish at once. Magic Bait, bought with Qi Gems, strips the time, weather and season limits off a spot's fish list. Since neither does anything extra in a trap, the bin's plain output is what belongs in the crab pots, and the clever bait is saved for the rod.
Uses
Crafting Worm Bin with the other materials below makes these items.
| Item | Image | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| Deluxe Worm Bin | 
|
Worm Bin (1), Moss (30) |
Notes
The upgrade is the real prize. Fishing level 8 unlocks the Deluxe Worm Bin, built by adding thirty Moss to an existing bin, and it produces four or five Deluxe Bait every morning instead. Deluxe Bait cuts the wait for a bite by about two thirds rather than a half, makes rubbish rarer and lifts Crab Pot hauls to silver quality, which is a large step up for the price of some Moss.
Bait can be had other ways, and the bin is better than all of them. The recipe from Bug Meat turns one piece of meat into five Bait at Fishing level 2, but it depends on killing bugs. Willy sells Bait cheaply at the Fish Shop and Deluxe Bait for a great deal more, and the River Fish Bundle hands over a stack as its reward. None of those is free every morning for the rest of the save.
The Fishing professions change the sums. Taking Trapper at level 5 makes crab pots much cheaper to build, and the Luremaster path at level 10 lets pots work with no bait at all, which frees the bins entirely for rod fishing.
All Crafting
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
