In Terraria, fishing can be used to get various stuff, including fishes, usable items, and junk, and it could even spawn enemies during the Blood Moon event. The fishing power (i.e., ability to catch high-tier fish) depends on fishing pole strength, bait power, time, lake size, item boosts, and potion boosts.
Bait power in Terraria is a very cool mechanism. You cannot fish without bait, and you use these items only when you catch something. In some cases, the item might not even be consumed in the process. However, if you want to go fishing or start a quest, I suggest you stock up on quality bait beforehand.
Categorizing bait power in terraria
All baits can be categorized based on their rarity. As you can presume, higher-tier baits have a higher bait power. If you’re an experienced player, you will know the ranges of bait power in Terraria according to item rarity. For example, the power of white baits will range from 5% to 10%.
Here is a breakdown of these items:
- White rarity baits: from 5% to 10% bait power (Scorpion, Snail, Grasshopper, Sulphur, and Monarch butterfly.
- Blue rarity baits: from 15% to 25% bait power (Julia Butterfly, Worm, various Dragonflies, Grubby, etc.)
- Green rarity baits: from 30% to 40% bait power (Buggy, Lightning Bug, Magma Snail, Red Admiral Butterfly, etc.)
- Orange rarity baits: 50% bait power (Gold Ladybug, Gold Grasshopper, Gold Worm, etc.)
- Truffle Worm: 666% bait power
Although Truffle Worm has immense power, you can’t use it for fishing. Instead, its primary purpose is to summon Duke Fishron. You can only catch it in the Cavern biome and lower layers.
How to acquire baits?
There are 45 baits in Terraria. So, it makes sense you would need different methods for acquiring some of them. You can use items such as Golden Bug Net, Bug Net, and Lavaproof Bug Net to catch most of these animals.
A general rule of thumb is to use just about any invertebrate as bait. This includes various worms, snails, insects, and scorpions. You can easily catch these critters in Hallow, Jungle, and Forest biomes, but things get a bit harder as you traverse downward.
Certain types of animals cannot be caught with Bug Net. Instead, you would need to use Golden Bug Net or Lavaproof Bug Net. This includes Magma Snail, Lavafly, and Hell Butterfly. The great thing about these critters is that you can use them for lava fishing.
There are also some aquatic animals that you can only acquire by fishing. This includes Pink, Green, and Blue Jellyfishes. You can get certain baits by completing fishing quests or from crates such as Master Bait, Apprentice Bait, and Journeyman Bait.
8 Pro tips every fisher should know
There are several things you need to consider before you go fishing in Terraria:
- You always use the first bait in the uppermost left corner. Then, you consume the following item to the right. After that, you go to the lower row and so on.
- Worms only spawn in the Forest biome during rain.
- Unlike Worms, Fireflies do not spawn during rain. Instead, you need to wait for nightfall. You can find regular Fireflies in the Forest biome and more powerful Lightning Fireflies in the Hallow biome.
- You can use Ladybugs as baits, but consuming them during fishing counts as if you killed them. This will reduce your luck, which also reduces fishing power.
- One of the best ways of acquiring surface baits is by destroying flowers with Flower Boots.
- You can increase spawn frequency and max number by using Battle Potions, Calming Potions, Water Candles, Sunflowers, and Peace Candles.
- You can’t use Bug Net against animals that spawn from statues. In other words, these creatures cannot serve as baits making statues irrelevant for fishing.
- The quality of bait reduces the chance of consumption. For example, a lowly Monarch Butterfly will be consumed 55% of the time you catch a fish, while Gold Butterfly will be depleted 10% of the time you catch a fish.
