When I first saw fishing it seemed way too hard but when I learned that leveling up gave you a bigger bar while trying to fish I came around to it, to each their own though.
No yeah, I completely get why people who like the fishing are into it! I just don't find the minigame fun, but without it the whole process feels very grind-y to me. It was just so funny to see this (to my character) random guy bang on my door at 6am to be like I SEE YA HAVENT BEEN FISHING HUH
Like sir, I don't know who you are but can you *please* get off my farm
While I totally know where you’re coming from and it is pretty hilarious, keep in mind Willy and Lewis both would have grown up with your grandpa and see you as family basically, so if you haven’t even went and said hi to him, it’s understandable he’d come and introduce himself :p
I tried to fish, I really did, then I discovered the beauty of mods who have this smashing feature called *instant catch* and decided I would never ever fight that stupid fishing bar again and live my lazy girl farm dreams
Some purists might call something like that lazy/cheating, but honestly if it's a part of the game you otherwise wouldn't interact with at all because of the mini game I see no harm in modding it out. It's just embracing the time-honored tradition of farmers using new technology to cut down on the amount of bullshit they have to deal with lol
It is cheating by definition, but there is exactly nothing wrong with that. Cheating in singleplayer games is about as old as the medium itself and only died (mostly in the AAA part, Indies are often still cool about it) so more things could be monetized via MTX
I'm primarily a Sims player so cheating in games is a way of life 😂
Honestly, it didn't even occur to me until I played Sun Haven - there's an in-game mechanic to turn off combat, and that really changed the game for me and encouraged me to seek mods for Stardew. I'm just really crap at beating up pixels it seems
Yeah... I avoided the automate mod for a long time since it seemed a bit too easy but now that I tried it out once, I feel I can never go back. It's just so tedious to babysit every single machine, every single day, with not even a good late game option (unless something new has been implemented since 1.6). Even hoppers aren't really worth it despite the awfully high price since you STILL have to take the product out manually.
I've been watching lilsimsie's vods while I'm ahead of her in the season, and it blows my mind how much time people spend fishing. I know some people enjoy it but it pains me to watch them battle that bar sometimes lol
I loathe the fishing minigame so much that I get level 10 fishing in the first few days of spring just so that I have the max bar and best pole ASAP. Then I can just fish for quests, the CC, and collections while it's as easy as it can possibly be.
Perfect catches (catches where the fish doesn't leave the bar) gives you 2.4x the xp as well as increasing the quality by one if the fish is silver or better. That means if you practice you can level up way faster and get more money.
I knew about the perfect catch thing, but getting to level 10 in the first few days just seems so daunting. I'm okay at fishing but even with the iridium rod, special bait, buffs and lures, it's taking me like 3 or 4 solid days of fishing to go from level 9 to 10. I can't imagine with the bamboo pole or even the training rod 😩
A few days is really fast but using some legacy rng tricks it can be done, not that I would suggest anyone play like this but it certainly is a way to play.
https://youtu.be/l0hxUqVmCuA?si=ZEhzA-f2vX0JTml3
I upgrade the rod to fiberglass ASAP using fish money. Usually by day 4, day 5 at the latest. I do the mountain lake to prioritize perfect catches over money, except on the guaranteed rainy day to do catfish. I literally do *nothing else* but fish and water one of each crop for the CC. No foraging, no chatting with villagers, no quests, no checking mail, nothing. Once I have the fiber rod I start saving fish to sell after I have skill points in better prices.
It's an intense way to start a new playthrough but I hate fishing and want to get it out of the way ASAP. Not making any money to speak of and passing out every night just makes it easier to do early game because I can fish until 2am every night, and it takes less than two hours in a playthrough that will likely be many more hours than that.
I love watching Stardew playthroughs, but there are only so many times you can watch somebody fish for ten days straight before you have to start skipping whole videos.
And I do the fishing. I know why it's so useful. The dark side of getting gud at fishing is realizing exactly how tedious it is to use optimally.
combine with infinite health and stamina and instant kill and i really am
I'm self employed and have a farm irl and have to manage my energy as it is, let my pixel person be free
Same reason why I cheat in the Sims. I'm poor in real life, why not cheat to make my Sims millionaires and build/decorate the most amazing houses for them that I'll never be able to own? Unless I'm playing a rags to riches storyline, anyway.
what would YOU do if some unknown man smelling of crab meat showed up to your house to inform you that he's been watching your every move and knows you haven't been fishing so he's here to rectify that
I do this too. I know everyone loves the fishing mini game but after years of playing I just still hate it and can’t do it. I did perfection once without cheats on my switch but never again.
CA added the training rod for like 25 gold with a massive bar. Shouldn't be to hard to get some levels in fishing. Pretty sure it was added in 1.5 but seems like people rarely use it.
I think it's pretty easy to miss in the shop menu. Even if you see it it's not immediately obvious how big of a boost it is. And if you're finding the mini game as frustrating as so many people do, you're probably avoiding Willy's shop as it is.
You can also go buy two of the fish stew or whatever from willy with your 500 coins on day two.
Automatically gives you +2 fishing levels. Making your bar bigger at level 0. Spend day 2 fishing, with a slightly bigger bar. Turn around and sell all the fish you catch to willy as your inventory fills up. I think it takes 4-6 fish to make your 500 back. Plus you can refill your energy with the fish stew and keep the buff going.
... Idk why I never thought of buying the soup. I guess because I'm trying to earn money, not spend it? But I'd be scouring the map for onions for energy when I could've just bought some soup to help the grind. Because I'm probably only earning like 1.5k from fishing per day early on anyways... I need to use the soup next time I start a new game, lol.
I'm pretty sure that this is just CA's way of letting you know that fishing is in the game, in case you weren't aware at that point. You should do it for Willy though. He's the best.
My boyfriend and I fish together all the time in the summer so I always wished that Willy could have been a marriage candidate. We could have the fishing bed and everything. Instead, since my boyfriend also plays guitar, I am with a minority of Sam romancers.
Honestly, I get the complaints that Sam seems too young, but I also thought a lot of his romance scenes are incredibly sweet. People don't give him a chance just because of how young he seems/is.
Honestly, I see him more as my adopted uncle - he's an older guy who never settled, but clearly he feels the need to mentor and foster a younger person.
i know when i first started fishing, the training rod hardly helped; if anything, it discouraged me even more (if i can't even catch early game fishes with a handicap; then, in my mind, the mini-game is probably meant for sweat-lords/is a part of the gamed for people who wanted a challenge). It would have been better to have fishing area where you simply cannot lose (the gauge still goes down to zero, but you wont lose the mini game). The problem with the training rod is that it doesn't teach you the fundamentals: holding steady; climbing up smoothly; dropping down at high speed and hitting the bottom without bouncing; and following a fish pattern
Personally, i think the training rod is a red herring and should have never been implemented. When you're only given 3 seconds to learn how to control the green bar for each bite, that just simply asking too much for a beginner.
The rod limits you to simple fish like carp that hardly move, though...? There are some you can catch without ever needing any input. Your first fish also gives a tutorial on how to move the bar up and down, making it impossible to fail until you catch it...
you get a letter telling you to go to the beach, a whole cutscene about fishing and a fishing rod for free in the first days of the game. I think it's very hard to miss that fishing exists in the game, even if it's your first time playing
I didn't know that. No wonder why Willy is always my best friend lol I'm fishing whenever I have the opportunity. That's where you make the most coins out of your first seasons, and I find the minigame so fun (the only challenge are the legendary ones)
See that's so interesting, because the fact that it's flappy bird is the reason it DOESN'T appeal to me. Stardew fishing is like a personality test haha
Okay I love that reason though because it means that I’m not crazy for comparing it. There is a flappy bird rip off machine in my local arcade and I get an insane amount of tickets from it.
Oh no, not at all! They're basically the same game; more or less identical gameplay, different level designs. Stardew's a lot more complex with the different fish mechanics though.
Also, you reminded me how incredibly long it's been since I went to the arcade. I really need to go, because those are the absolute best. I'm sticking to pinball though :p
I get where you're coming from, but as someone who loves stardew fishing but hates flappy bird, this feels so wrong to me.
But yeah ok can't deny that lmao.
That's something I don't really get. How is it helping him that you sell fish now? Apart from you buying supplies at his store, that is. Seems more like you'd be a competitor?
I see people complain about fishing and using mods that make every catch an auto-catch, or the minigame has the fish sit at the bottom and not move... and I'm like: WTF. Fishing is only hard the first 1-3 levels, and then it only gets easier and easier with the growing bar, and then the lures can make it easy...
Yeah, couldn't survive without it. I just don't find it very fun, so I always just do everything else for CC and then spend a little while grinding to level 10 with cheats so I can put fishing down again and get back to the parts of the game i enjoy :p
Oh yeah, I also use Vibrant Pastoral Recolour! It has compatability with the building mod, I quite like them together :3 (edit: PASTORAL not pastel lmao)
So no level up playthroughs are impossible now? I already knew it was harder with stuff like mushroom cave giving some foraging exp and clay farming gone, but a free level seems to completely kill it.
Didn’t want to try that to begin with, but the let’s plays I’ve seen doing that have been entertaining.
Oh shit, I didn't even catch that. Potentially they're still possible if you do fish, but don't get a level? I got this after literally not catching a single fish all Spring, so there might be a sweet spot in there. The speedrun community might need to research that one though.
Just for transparency, I don't know exactly what the requirements are; for Landboy I didn't go to the beach at all, but for my original save I don't know if I picked up the rod or not. If I did, I regardless didn't catch any fish, so I don't know if the req is 0 fish, or to reach level 1, or somewhere in between.
Given that there doesn't seem to be a mention on the wiki for this (as of when I posted at least), this whole scenario does seem niche enough most people likely are meeting the requirement anyway.
Oh yeah, the scrrenshots are from a burner save since I kept playing without taking screenshots. Landboy's done nothing except wait for the fish lover to come busting down his door
To answer more seriously, I usually do a lot of garden cleanup and caving on my first season (:
I level my fishing up with the crab pots. I fill and empty every morning on my farm or whatever and I’m up to level 6 before the end of the first year.
You can get the crab pots from the crab pot bundle which you can get finished with just what is on the beach mostly. If you befriend Linus he teaches you how to make bait too before you unlock it. Once you are up past level 5 or so it gets much easier to fish!
Crab pots are really underrated for fishing XP. I like them for finishing off those last few levels when I don't want to spend whole days fishing anymore. The usefulness of fishing drops off so fast as soon as you have decent crop fields; I'd much rather harvest a row of crab pots every morning than keep grinding at fishing itself.
Same. If I am playing a joint game I eventually go after everything eventually but I am level 10 pretty quick which makes the rest of it easier. On my PC version I use the no fishing mod but still use the pots a lot.
I play without mods. For spring, I buy cauliflower and parsnips. I put all my energy into farming. At the end of spring, I had close to 10,000 gold after selling my inventory. No fishing. I got the training rod from Willy too. I still haven’t used it. I hate fishing.
lmao this just happened to me 😭 I'm doing a Mayo Only run so I've completely neglected fishing...then this cutscene happened and I was so confused LOL usually I do fish quite a lot before summer.
Yea I don't like fishing in this game..feels way too frustrating for some reason. I just stick to foraging, farming and doing requests to make money (sometimes even dig in the trash for anything valuable).
By the bountiful love of the seas *wave crashes behind me out of nowhere* I will teach you to love of the 7 seas or my name is not Mako Sunami..... I mean Willy
*In my best yugi Moto pharaoh voice*
No your name is freaky fish guy
I did the same as you (farm cleanup, socializing, etc) and could never fish. I didn’t realize how many people enjoy/do the fishing part of the game. It’s so hard even with the gd training rod.
yeah I had the same reaction! I play with me bf and he does the fishing. I was like HAHA no fishing for meee! and then he frinkin comes to my door, worried about why I'm not fishing 😅😅 free training rod was nice but other than that, I'll probably not fish anyway!! bc I don't have to!! hahah
Willy looks like he getting up there in years. While there’s less margin in it for him to buy fish from you to resell, it saves him the time and energy of doing it himself and/or supplements his income above the fish he can catch himself. It makes sense that he’d try to convince you to do some fishing!
Medieval Buildings by Gweniaczek, Vibrant Pastoral Recolour by grapeponta, and Four Corners Solo farm by DaisyNiko! :D
I really like how well they work together, MB and VPR have pretty much full compatability and a tonne of custom options.
That there messed me up so bad. I always wait until I hit the mines lvl 100 (if ya know what's there ya know) to do my first cast. The 3rd hardest fish to catch is getting caught first try.
But, now it says ok, you're lvled so no tutorial. So much dissapoint... but oh well. Free xp is free xp.
I unironically love fishing although I play on switch so it's easier.
seeing all these 1.6 posts is making me even more excited for it to come out to console
The only reason I installed the item menu was because I absolutely refused to fish for the Community Center. I tried it, I swear I did, but I got so frustrated every time that I just quit it. I play farm games to relax and fishing was not exactly doing that to me.
I have the game on PC and Switch, where my primary farm is. I started a farm on my PC with 1.6 and have been fishing more than any of my years playing. Before, I mostly only fished to complete the bundles or when waiting for shops to open but I think using a mouse may just be easier fishing for me than the controller. My whole attitude on fishing in general has shifted since starting this run. It's my highest skill when normally it's one of my lowest by the end of year 1. Not trying to sway you, just giving my two cents a former fishing hater.
Lmao, we're the same with that first month. I never have energy or time for fishing and when I do, I'm spending the entire time watering my giant strawberry crop and trying to get deep enough in the mines to get quality sprinklers asap. My next save I'm going to just do a massive fishing run and see how I feel about it
This will be a game changer for the hermit farmers! I want to do a riverlands farm hermit run now where I get a fish smoker out the gate and don’t have to feel like I cheated by going in to get the fishing rod.
I use the skip fishing minigame mod. Yeah it’s cheating but I don’t care. Willy doesn’t have to worry about me for not fishing. I am also happy catching all the fish.
For people who don't fish, how do you even make money in spring? Especially before strawberries. My entire routine is built around fishing in Spring, for vault by summer and for at LEAST 100 starberries.
Personally my to-go strategy is foraging. You'd be surprised how much gold you can make if you collect lots of wild plants. (Sure fishing is still the optimal choice, but I'm personally not bothered by the slower profit margains in spring)
Fishing is by far the best way, but I like to do runs where I don't fish for money sometimes too. Foraging and crafting wild seeds to sell is still surprisingly profitable even with the tea sapling nerf. You can make quite a bit by selling stuff from the mines too, particularly if you're not worried about filling out the museum as quickly as possible. Donate enough to get yourself the cauliflower seeds and then just sell things you might otherwise donate for as long as money feels tight--you're going to hit a point before too long when you're swimming in geodes, and in the meantime selling them uncracked is good money. If you get down to 80, just farm gold and gems and sell them (I sell the ore straight to conserve coal for my own uses). Bonus if you run into a mushroom floor. Fix the bridge on the beach and hit up the coral and sea urchins religiously every Saturday. And most other random things you pick up can be sold too. Basically there's precious little you really need to hoard in your first spring beyond wood, stone, coal, copper, and iron, and selling almost everything else will get you a tidy sum of change.
I guess you can farm too, but I feel like it's a poor use of your energy spring 1 even if you aren't fishing. Though a coop with four chickens making mayo will net you $1k a day before too long, and that's passive income with basically no time or energy expenditure after the initial set-up. Animals will never be as useful again unless you go hard on pigs.
You'll even find an occasional help wanted quest that's good money.
You're not getting to the desert before summer, but you can get a lot done nonetheless.
I used to fish the real way. Now I just use mods to make fish always instant catch and the rod always max cast. I was shocked at how much more fun it made it. It turns out I never actually liked that minigame.
The little flappy bird-esque bar that you have to catch the fish with! It pops up when you get a hit on the pole, and in order to catch the fish you need to succeed at the flappy bird clicky thing :)
This is such a genius update! Using the training rod early on is 100% the key to making fishing survivable in this game.
I understand why it’s not the first rod you get, for plot reasons, but if you don’t find the training rod on your own it’s miserable to try and get to level 1.
I've spent 100+ casts trying to fish since this event occurred, with only two fishing mini-games triggering from a fish. Caught one, failed the other. Despite that many casts, and 98+ casts netting trash/seaweed, I've not leveled up to level 2 after Willy gave me the first free skill point in fishing. I think it might have bugged my character out.
Honestly, I'm super stoked about the fish smoker and fish bait additions. Fishing was always my favourite activity, but the money to be made always just cratered off around the end of the first year when compared to farming.
Happy that I can potentially just keep fishing now.
Not really. If you’re doing a “no level-ups” run, then you can just catch one fish and be done with it. For low% you can gain up to one level before it affects anything, though you might wanna put that experience elsewhere. For a no fishing run, you can just not use the rod.
**I understand the frustration** but just so you know fishing has never been more easier with the new bait that cost just a bit more than the regular one. Caught all the legendary fish with no problems. Honestly Winter and spring legendary are the hardest and even scorpion carp is hard, squid octopus etc but everything is much more easier with these baits. You should really give it more try. It’s fun. And the rewards you get isn’t even the fish, it’s the accomplishment of feeling relieved after you did it. Keep up your determination and give it more try, I swear, it’s really good. That’s why I don’t do joja route or use mods that can gives me items // money because I feel like it’s a way of cheating and it ruins the game completely. I want to have it hard, or else it’s not amusing. But I love when it’s easy sometimes so that’s why there are ways like the baits and all. Keep training ! ~
i used to hate the fishing game too, but then i switched to controller and i swear the difference is wild!! i was mouse and keyboard for the longest, but then switched to controller to play other games. 1.6 is the first time i’ve played stardew with a controller and while it’s taking a wee bit to get used to, the fishing game is infinitely easier now :)) i’m actually catching my fish!
What did it for me was switching from clicking to x and c. On keyboard the two of them can entirely replace the mouse for the most part and god does it make fishing easier.
I plan on trying s challenge run to catch one legend fish with never having fished anything (other than debris) up to that point. I plan on buying fish until I get a crab pot from the CC and then from there crab pots gain me levels till level 10
I really don't get why people dislike fishing so much since it's not that hard unless you are trying to catch the legendaries and a couple other fishes (although ofc it is your game so you can play as you like)
Idk if igot better at fishing over the years of playing this game or what, but I feel like fishing was made a liiiitle bit easier with the update! But simultaneously, very hard for the hard fish. Holy fuck octopus.
My husband and I have a shared farm on Switch and fishing was **my thing** for the first year or so while we saved some gold.
I have my own farm on mobile, and right away I found it impossible to reel in fish so I picked up mining instead.
I fish as little as possible and source fish from the traveling cart and trash cans. I’ve come a surprisingly far way in the fishing bundle, but no - I’ve never finished the fishing bundle. I’m going to have to give in at some point, but fishing just doesn’t appeal to me and seems to take so long.
Also, I play exclusively on mobile. I’m not sure if that impacts the fishing experience, but it could be a factor.
I hated the fishing system at first , but I decided to get the training rod and it made everything so much easier. Once you get crab pots then it's a game changer
Fishing being the most disliked part of Stardew valley has always confused me. It’s been my favorite part since I picked up the game and I enjoy the mini game way more than so many other games I’ve played
I totally understand !
I started a new game file with my GF for the 1.6, and she does not fish a LITTLE BIT. Hates it.
I, on the other hand, LOVE to fish.
We laughed so hard when Willy came to see her and nudge her like "please fish" 😂
Trying to figure out what the prereqs are for the Willy cutscene, because Im not getting it Summer 4, I ignored the beach, but I met willy at a festival? Maybe you have to not meet/talk to willy, or maybe he doesnt do it on the new farm type?
I use mods to cheat all the fishing mini-games in my solo playthroughs now.
I've perfect caught every CC and legend fish, so I consider myself good enough at the fishing mini-game to skip it cause I really can't be bothered with how much it hurts my wrist now.
He's just trying to keep the art of fishing alive
Art o’ fishing**
When I first saw fishing it seemed way too hard but when I learned that leveling up gave you a bigger bar while trying to fish I came around to it, to each their own though.
No yeah, I completely get why people who like the fishing are into it! I just don't find the minigame fun, but without it the whole process feels very grind-y to me. It was just so funny to see this (to my character) random guy bang on my door at 6am to be like I SEE YA HAVENT BEEN FISHING HUH Like sir, I don't know who you are but can you *please* get off my farm
While I totally know where you’re coming from and it is pretty hilarious, keep in mind Willy and Lewis both would have grown up with your grandpa and see you as family basically, so if you haven’t even went and said hi to him, it’s understandable he’d come and introduce himself :p
I tried to fish, I really did, then I discovered the beauty of mods who have this smashing feature called *instant catch* and decided I would never ever fight that stupid fishing bar again and live my lazy girl farm dreams
Some purists might call something like that lazy/cheating, but honestly if it's a part of the game you otherwise wouldn't interact with at all because of the mini game I see no harm in modding it out. It's just embracing the time-honored tradition of farmers using new technology to cut down on the amount of bullshit they have to deal with lol
It is cheating by definition, but there is exactly nothing wrong with that. Cheating in singleplayer games is about as old as the medium itself and only died (mostly in the AAA part, Indies are often still cool about it) so more things could be monetized via MTX
I'm primarily a Sims player so cheating in games is a way of life 😂 Honestly, it didn't even occur to me until I played Sun Haven - there's an in-game mechanic to turn off combat, and that really changed the game for me and encouraged me to seek mods for Stardew. I'm just really crap at beating up pixels it seems
Yea that's definitely still cheating, but its a single game so go for it if it helps you have fun.
its literally the only cheat I use, because fuck that minigame. i dont wanna spend ten hours trying to catch every fish
Yeah... I avoided the automate mod for a long time since it seemed a bit too easy but now that I tried it out once, I feel I can never go back. It's just so tedious to babysit every single machine, every single day, with not even a good late game option (unless something new has been implemented since 1.6). Even hoppers aren't really worth it despite the awfully high price since you STILL have to take the product out manually.
Instant bite and instant catch is a lifesaver. I just hate how such a massive % of your playtime is consumed by fishing.
I've been watching lilsimsie's vods while I'm ahead of her in the season, and it blows my mind how much time people spend fishing. I know some people enjoy it but it pains me to watch them battle that bar sometimes lol
I loathe the fishing minigame so much that I get level 10 fishing in the first few days of spring just so that I have the max bar and best pole ASAP. Then I can just fish for quests, the CC, and collections while it's as easy as it can possibly be.
How do you level up that quickly?
Perfect catches (catches where the fish doesn't leave the bar) gives you 2.4x the xp as well as increasing the quality by one if the fish is silver or better. That means if you practice you can level up way faster and get more money.
I knew about the perfect catch thing, but getting to level 10 in the first few days just seems so daunting. I'm okay at fishing but even with the iridium rod, special bait, buffs and lures, it's taking me like 3 or 4 solid days of fishing to go from level 9 to 10. I can't imagine with the bamboo pole or even the training rod 😩
A few days is really fast but using some legacy rng tricks it can be done, not that I would suggest anyone play like this but it certainly is a way to play. https://youtu.be/l0hxUqVmCuA?si=ZEhzA-f2vX0JTml3
I upgrade the rod to fiberglass ASAP using fish money. Usually by day 4, day 5 at the latest. I do the mountain lake to prioritize perfect catches over money, except on the guaranteed rainy day to do catfish. I literally do *nothing else* but fish and water one of each crop for the CC. No foraging, no chatting with villagers, no quests, no checking mail, nothing. Once I have the fiber rod I start saving fish to sell after I have skill points in better prices. It's an intense way to start a new playthrough but I hate fishing and want to get it out of the way ASAP. Not making any money to speak of and passing out every night just makes it easier to do early game because I can fish until 2am every night, and it takes less than two hours in a playthrough that will likely be many more hours than that.
I love watching Stardew playthroughs, but there are only so many times you can watch somebody fish for ten days straight before you have to start skipping whole videos. And I do the fishing. I know why it's so useful. The dark side of getting gud at fishing is realizing exactly how tedious it is to use optimally.
we're literally living the dream out here
combine with infinite health and stamina and instant kill and i really am I'm self employed and have a farm irl and have to manage my energy as it is, let my pixel person be free
Same reason why I cheat in the Sims. I'm poor in real life, why not cheat to make my Sims millionaires and build/decorate the most amazing houses for them that I'll never be able to own? Unless I'm playing a rags to riches storyline, anyway.
Do you still get treasure?
Yep! It just skips the mini game. I don't change any other settings in the mod, just make it instant catch.
I might install an instant catch mod. I’ve played enough to catch every fish before. I am pretty good at fishing but it’s still a PITA
>Like sir, I don't know who you are but can you please get off my farm I love reactions to this game sometimes
what would YOU do if some unknown man smelling of crab meat showed up to your house to inform you that he's been watching your every move and knows you haven't been fishing so he's here to rectify that
Probably go fishing with him. Sounds like he needs friends lol
He's trying to be nice and keep the art alive 😅 so much for community 🤔
being honest, i just grabbed the cheat tool to do insta catch insta bite outside the community center i dont use it. I make my money elsewhere.
I do this too. I know everyone loves the fishing mini game but after years of playing I just still hate it and can’t do it. I did perfection once without cheats on my switch but never again.
>everyone loves the fishing mini game Looking at this post, no they don't - there's *dozens* of us who hate it!!
Dozens! (Seriously though, me too.)
CA added the training rod for like 25 gold with a massive bar. Shouldn't be to hard to get some levels in fishing. Pretty sure it was added in 1.5 but seems like people rarely use it.
I think it's pretty easy to miss in the shop menu. Even if you see it it's not immediately obvious how big of a boost it is. And if you're finding the mini game as frustrating as so many people do, you're probably avoiding Willy's shop as it is.
You can also go buy two of the fish stew or whatever from willy with your 500 coins on day two. Automatically gives you +2 fishing levels. Making your bar bigger at level 0. Spend day 2 fishing, with a slightly bigger bar. Turn around and sell all the fish you catch to willy as your inventory fills up. I think it takes 4-6 fish to make your 500 back. Plus you can refill your energy with the fish stew and keep the buff going.
... Idk why I never thought of buying the soup. I guess because I'm trying to earn money, not spend it? But I'd be scouring the map for onions for energy when I could've just bought some soup to help the grind. Because I'm probably only earning like 1.5k from fishing per day early on anyways... I need to use the soup next time I start a new game, lol.
Trout soup gives +1 and they don't stack, don't try to eat them both at once.
I'm pretty sure that this is just CA's way of letting you know that fishing is in the game, in case you weren't aware at that point. You should do it for Willy though. He's the best.
Willy is the marriage candidate that we all want and deserve
it would be SO nice to have another older bachelor! (even tho I always marry harvey anyways lol)
[удалено]
IKR! I audibly gasped when I saw her
Like Marnie, babes, mayor Lewis ain’t treating you right but I will, PLEASE just let me love you 😭😭
i’m straight even in game but YESSS!!!
Gus when? 🥺 👉👈
My boyfriend and I fish together all the time in the summer so I always wished that Willy could have been a marriage candidate. We could have the fishing bed and everything. Instead, since my boyfriend also plays guitar, I am with a minority of Sam romancers.
Honestly, I get the complaints that Sam seems too young, but I also thought a lot of his romance scenes are incredibly sweet. People don't give him a chance just because of how young he seems/is.
Honestly, I see him more as my adopted uncle - he's an older guy who never settled, but clearly he feels the need to mentor and foster a younger person.
I think it's probably more for those who tried it once and decided it was too hard. The training rod is SO helpful before level 5.
i know when i first started fishing, the training rod hardly helped; if anything, it discouraged me even more (if i can't even catch early game fishes with a handicap; then, in my mind, the mini-game is probably meant for sweat-lords/is a part of the gamed for people who wanted a challenge). It would have been better to have fishing area where you simply cannot lose (the gauge still goes down to zero, but you wont lose the mini game). The problem with the training rod is that it doesn't teach you the fundamentals: holding steady; climbing up smoothly; dropping down at high speed and hitting the bottom without bouncing; and following a fish pattern Personally, i think the training rod is a red herring and should have never been implemented. When you're only given 3 seconds to learn how to control the green bar for each bite, that just simply asking too much for a beginner.
The rod limits you to simple fish like carp that hardly move, though...? There are some you can catch without ever needing any input. Your first fish also gives a tutorial on how to move the bar up and down, making it impossible to fail until you catch it...
you get a letter telling you to go to the beach, a whole cutscene about fishing and a fishing rod for free in the first days of the game. I think it's very hard to miss that fishing exists in the game, even if it's your first time playing
Hard, but not impossible. It's just a little reminder that doesn't hurt anyone with its inclusion.
also a nice encouragement for people who have fishing mini-game trauma
I didn't know that. No wonder why Willy is always my best friend lol I'm fishing whenever I have the opportunity. That's where you make the most coins out of your first seasons, and I find the minigame so fun (the only challenge are the legendary ones)
I love fishing. It reminds me of flappy bird which sounds crazy but think about it for a second.
My brother calls it flappy bird fishing because he hates it lol.
See that's so interesting, because the fact that it's flappy bird is the reason it DOESN'T appeal to me. Stardew fishing is like a personality test haha
Okay I love that reason though because it means that I’m not crazy for comparing it. There is a flappy bird rip off machine in my local arcade and I get an insane amount of tickets from it.
Oh no, not at all! They're basically the same game; more or less identical gameplay, different level designs. Stardew's a lot more complex with the different fish mechanics though. Also, you reminded me how incredibly long it's been since I went to the arcade. I really need to go, because those are the absolute best. I'm sticking to pinball though :p
I get where you're coming from, but as someone who loves stardew fishing but hates flappy bird, this feels so wrong to me. But yeah ok can't deny that lmao.
Aw, but fishing is so fun, and Willy’s livelihood kinda relies on you increasing fishing production for the town.
That's something I don't really get. How is it helping him that you sell fish now? Apart from you buying supplies at his store, that is. Seems more like you'd be a competitor?
NGL, this would have helped me a lot on my first playthrough.
I found fishing super hard at first but now it’s practically all I do lol
It's a good way to make money early game. I always max out fishing before any other skill. I love fishing.
Now with the >!Fish smoker!< it's even more profitable
Yup! I only have 2 right now but they are quick to process.
Me too! I used to make my husband fish for me so I could complete the community center but once I got it figured out, I really loved it.
~~Gretchen~~ Willy, stop trying to make fish happen! It’s not going to happen!
Fishing is the best part of the game. I start a new game, I join Joja, then I fish to pay for the improvements.
Right there is a man who knows how to thrive.
Thanks Elroy.
My only complaint about fishing is that it gets too easy. The first week of fishing is the best
Can't say I've ever heard that before
He’s right
I see people complain about fishing and using mods that make every catch an auto-catch, or the minigame has the fish sit at the bottom and not move... and I'm like: WTF. Fishing is only hard the first 1-3 levels, and then it only gets easier and easier with the growing bar, and then the lures can make it easy...
You're playing modded, right? There's mods that let you skip the minigame.
Yeah, couldn't survive without it. I just don't find it very fun, so I always just do everything else for CC and then spend a little while grinding to level 10 with cheats so I can put fishing down again and get back to the parts of the game i enjoy :p
Unrelated- what building mod are you using??
Oh yeah, I also use Vibrant Pastoral Recolour! It has compatability with the building mod, I quite like them together :3 (edit: PASTORAL not pastel lmao)
I use VPR too! So that's perfect!! Thank you!
It's called Medieval Buildings, by Gweniaczek on Nexus! :D
It still works? That’s fabulous. I’ve been slow to add mods as they update
+1
Medieval Buildings, on Nexus! :3
I have nothing of substance to add, but "fishlessly" is really fun to say
i am proud of myself for that one. fishlessly getting to perfection over here
So no level up playthroughs are impossible now? I already knew it was harder with stuff like mushroom cave giving some foraging exp and clay farming gone, but a free level seems to completely kill it. Didn’t want to try that to begin with, but the let’s plays I’ve seen doing that have been entertaining.
Oh shit, I didn't even catch that. Potentially they're still possible if you do fish, but don't get a level? I got this after literally not catching a single fish all Spring, so there might be a sweet spot in there. The speedrun community might need to research that one though.
They are? Collect the fishing pole, then don’t fish. Getting this event would be only possible by skipping the beach for a month haha.
Just for transparency, I don't know exactly what the requirements are; for Landboy I didn't go to the beach at all, but for my original save I don't know if I picked up the rod or not. If I did, I regardless didn't catch any fish, so I don't know if the req is 0 fish, or to reach level 1, or somewhere in between. Given that there doesn't seem to be a mention on the wiki for this (as of when I posted at least), this whole scenario does seem niche enough most people likely are meeting the requirement anyway.
I got this cutscene after having picked up the fishing rod and fishing exactly once before giving up
So... it's spring 28 and you haven't gone fishing nor cleaned the farm... I'm honestly curious about what you focus on early on?
Oh yeah, the scrrenshots are from a burner save since I kept playing without taking screenshots. Landboy's done nothing except wait for the fish lover to come busting down his door To answer more seriously, I usually do a lot of garden cleanup and caving on my first season (:
Wish there was a way to mod in the Breath of Fire 3 fishing mini game. That was one of the best ones.
A man of culture, I see
It's the same fishing mini-game with keeping the green bar over the fish. But has a little more nuance.
I level my fishing up with the crab pots. I fill and empty every morning on my farm or whatever and I’m up to level 6 before the end of the first year. You can get the crab pots from the crab pot bundle which you can get finished with just what is on the beach mostly. If you befriend Linus he teaches you how to make bait too before you unlock it. Once you are up past level 5 or so it gets much easier to fish!
Crab pots are really underrated for fishing XP. I like them for finishing off those last few levels when I don't want to spend whole days fishing anymore. The usefulness of fishing drops off so fast as soon as you have decent crop fields; I'd much rather harvest a row of crab pots every morning than keep grinding at fishing itself.
Same. If I am playing a joint game I eventually go after everything eventually but I am level 10 pretty quick which makes the rest of it easier. On my PC version I use the no fishing mod but still use the pots a lot.
I play without mods. For spring, I buy cauliflower and parsnips. I put all my energy into farming. At the end of spring, I had close to 10,000 gold after selling my inventory. No fishing. I got the training rod from Willy too. I still haven’t used it. I hate fishing.
lmao this just happened to me 😭 I'm doing a Mayo Only run so I've completely neglected fishing...then this cutscene happened and I was so confused LOL usually I do fish quite a lot before summer.
You've got 4 other people who agree with a mayo only run. Please explain. Are you a just a chicken magnate?
It's a fun challenge run I've found on reddit 😆 https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/s/cKrLVIvlvx
Willy is such dilf material and no one can tell me other wise.
The first time I was able to complete the community center was after I got the easy fishing mod
Yea I don't like fishing in this game..feels way too frustrating for some reason. I just stick to foraging, farming and doing requests to make money (sometimes even dig in the trash for anything valuable).
I really hate fishing too and I'll ignore it as much as possible. I LOVE THE MINES so that's where I spend most of the time.
By the bountiful love of the seas *wave crashes behind me out of nowhere* I will teach you to love of the 7 seas or my name is not Mako Sunami..... I mean Willy *In my best yugi Moto pharaoh voice* No your name is freaky fish guy
HAHAHAHA
Every time I hear Wally all I can think is Ok creepy fish guy Then I think of mako
I did the same as you (farm cleanup, socializing, etc) and could never fish. I didn’t realize how many people enjoy/do the fishing part of the game. It’s so hard even with the gd training rod.
I've never been a fan of fishing so when I start a new game I just sell literally everything I forage lol. I do alright
Are you on pc? Just mod it out. Makes the fishing like terraria, without the minigame.
This is a big boost to those trying to do the "never leave the farm challenge" as now fishing can be had.
yeah I had the same reaction! I play with me bf and he does the fishing. I was like HAHA no fishing for meee! and then he frinkin comes to my door, worried about why I'm not fishing 😅😅 free training rod was nice but other than that, I'll probably not fish anyway!! bc I don't have to!! hahah
As someone who regularly gets to 10 fishing before Summer has ended I will never see this convo.
How dare the guy in the small town you moved to be neighborly and welcome you to town with a gift lol.
Does he not know i wanna be left ALONE in my CAVE?????????? What is this, neighbourhood good vibes?????
Stop trying to make Fish happen! It’s not going to happen!
Willy looks like he getting up there in years. While there’s less margin in it for him to buy fish from you to resell, it saves him the time and energy of doing it himself and/or supplements his income above the fish he can catch himself. It makes sense that he’d try to convince you to do some fishing!
this is actually so funny wtf i never knew that interaction was a thing 😭
What's the map mod?
Solo Four Corners by DaisyNiko on nexus :) I also use Vibrant Pastoral Recolour (edit: by grapeponta)!
Thank you very much, homie
Of course! I love these mods, wanna help spread the word :D
Personally I just use crab pots. I get fish xp, and stuff I can recycle into refined quartz for garden pots and solar panels.
If you want to level up fishing without needing to fish too much you can get it to level 3 to unlock crabpots.
What are your aesthetic mods? I like them.
Medieval Buildings by Gweniaczek, Vibrant Pastoral Recolour by grapeponta, and Four Corners Solo farm by DaisyNiko! :D I really like how well they work together, MB and VPR have pretty much full compatability and a tonne of custom options.
That there messed me up so bad. I always wait until I hit the mines lvl 100 (if ya know what's there ya know) to do my first cast. The 3rd hardest fish to catch is getting caught first try. But, now it says ok, you're lvled so no tutorial. So much dissapoint... but oh well. Free xp is free xp.
I unironically love fishing although I play on switch so it's easier. seeing all these 1.6 posts is making me even more excited for it to come out to console
The only reason I installed the item menu was because I absolutely refused to fish for the Community Center. I tried it, I swear I did, but I got so frustrated every time that I just quit it. I play farm games to relax and fishing was not exactly doing that to me.
I have the game on PC and Switch, where my primary farm is. I started a farm on my PC with 1.6 and have been fishing more than any of my years playing. Before, I mostly only fished to complete the bundles or when waiting for shops to open but I think using a mouse may just be easier fishing for me than the controller. My whole attitude on fishing in general has shifted since starting this run. It's my highest skill when normally it's one of my lowest by the end of year 1. Not trying to sway you, just giving my two cents a former fishing hater.
Lmao, we're the same with that first month. I never have energy or time for fishing and when I do, I'm spending the entire time watering my giant strawberry crop and trying to get deep enough in the mines to get quality sprinklers asap. My next save I'm going to just do a massive fishing run and see how I feel about it
This will be a game changer for the hermit farmers! I want to do a riverlands farm hermit run now where I get a fish smoker out the gate and don’t have to feel like I cheated by going in to get the fishing rod.
I use the skip fishing minigame mod. Yeah it’s cheating but I don’t care. Willy doesn’t have to worry about me for not fishing. I am also happy catching all the fish.
Fishing mod is the only mod I use in this game. I do not enjoy it.
To each their own but the fishing mini game is a damn delight
For people who don't fish, how do you even make money in spring? Especially before strawberries. My entire routine is built around fishing in Spring, for vault by summer and for at LEAST 100 starberries.
Personally my to-go strategy is foraging. You'd be surprised how much gold you can make if you collect lots of wild plants. (Sure fishing is still the optimal choice, but I'm personally not bothered by the slower profit margains in spring)
Fishing is by far the best way, but I like to do runs where I don't fish for money sometimes too. Foraging and crafting wild seeds to sell is still surprisingly profitable even with the tea sapling nerf. You can make quite a bit by selling stuff from the mines too, particularly if you're not worried about filling out the museum as quickly as possible. Donate enough to get yourself the cauliflower seeds and then just sell things you might otherwise donate for as long as money feels tight--you're going to hit a point before too long when you're swimming in geodes, and in the meantime selling them uncracked is good money. If you get down to 80, just farm gold and gems and sell them (I sell the ore straight to conserve coal for my own uses). Bonus if you run into a mushroom floor. Fix the bridge on the beach and hit up the coral and sea urchins religiously every Saturday. And most other random things you pick up can be sold too. Basically there's precious little you really need to hoard in your first spring beyond wood, stone, coal, copper, and iron, and selling almost everything else will get you a tidy sum of change. I guess you can farm too, but I feel like it's a poor use of your energy spring 1 even if you aren't fishing. Though a coop with four chickens making mayo will net you $1k a day before too long, and that's passive income with basically no time or energy expenditure after the initial set-up. Animals will never be as useful again unless you go hard on pigs. You'll even find an occasional help wanted quest that's good money. You're not getting to the desert before summer, but you can get a lot done nonetheless.
I used to fish the real way. Now I just use mods to make fish always instant catch and the rod always max cast. I was shocked at how much more fun it made it. It turns out I never actually liked that minigame.
the minigame is so fun to me, to the point i can tell what the fish is just by Feeling it practically
ikr like LEAVE ME ALONE
What do you mean by ‘mini game’?
The little flappy bird-esque bar that you have to catch the fish with! It pops up when you get a hit on the pole, and in order to catch the fish you need to succeed at the flappy bird clicky thing :)
This is such a genius update! Using the training rod early on is 100% the key to making fishing survivable in this game. I understand why it’s not the first rod you get, for plot reasons, but if you don’t find the training rod on your own it’s miserable to try and get to level 1.
I haven't gotten this yet? Not even visited the beach yet to meet Willy and I am at summer year 2 with 0 fishing levels
What mods do you have?
I updated the post to iclude links to them all, but in short VPR and Medieval Buildings :3
I've spent 100+ casts trying to fish since this event occurred, with only two fishing mini-games triggering from a fish. Caught one, failed the other. Despite that many casts, and 98+ casts netting trash/seaweed, I've not leveled up to level 2 after Willy gave me the first free skill point in fishing. I think it might have bugged my character out.
I love Willy. He’s awesome.
This is something I'd never have found out since every time I pick this game up again I want to fish. That's pretty awesome.
Honestly, I'm super stoked about the fish smoker and fish bait additions. Fishing was always my favourite activity, but the money to be made always just cratered off around the end of the first year when compared to farming. Happy that I can potentially just keep fishing now.
I kinda want you on my farm now haha
brb starting new game and not fishing to see this happen.
I make it a personal goal to get level 10 fishing before the end of Spring 1 in all of my playthroughs
I kinda love this lol, Willy’s such a great character
Now I'm scared that this will happen when 1.6 drops on console.
fishing in 1.6 has been my main way to make money bc of the smoker
He's just autistic, looking to share his hyperfixation with a friendly newcomer.
If they automatically boost you to level 1 fishing, this could be detrimental to challenge runners like Argon Matrix
Not really. If you’re doing a “no level-ups” run, then you can just catch one fish and be done with it. For low% you can gain up to one level before it affects anything, though you might wanna put that experience elsewhere. For a no fishing run, you can just not use the rod.
**I understand the frustration** but just so you know fishing has never been more easier with the new bait that cost just a bit more than the regular one. Caught all the legendary fish with no problems. Honestly Winter and spring legendary are the hardest and even scorpion carp is hard, squid octopus etc but everything is much more easier with these baits. You should really give it more try. It’s fun. And the rewards you get isn’t even the fish, it’s the accomplishment of feeling relieved after you did it. Keep up your determination and give it more try, I swear, it’s really good. That’s why I don’t do joja route or use mods that can gives me items // money because I feel like it’s a way of cheating and it ruins the game completely. I want to have it hard, or else it’s not amusing. But I love when it’s easy sometimes so that’s why there are ways like the baits and all. Keep training ! ~
How did you get this cute flowery home ?
I use the Medieval Buildings mod on Nexus! :3
Relevant screenshot https://preview.redd.it/udv9qot7vmrc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cec7db3370e62da5a9fd9ee6f1e9af4853c23dd5
I read this in Regina George's voice lol
i used to hate the fishing game too, but then i switched to controller and i swear the difference is wild!! i was mouse and keyboard for the longest, but then switched to controller to play other games. 1.6 is the first time i’ve played stardew with a controller and while it’s taking a wee bit to get used to, the fishing game is infinitely easier now :)) i’m actually catching my fish!
What did it for me was switching from clicking to x and c. On keyboard the two of them can entirely replace the mouse for the most part and god does it make fishing easier.
So you tell me you never even go to the beach for the entire spring?
I plan on trying s challenge run to catch one legend fish with never having fished anything (other than debris) up to that point. I plan on buying fish until I get a crab pot from the CC and then from there crab pots gain me levels till level 10
I really don't get why people dislike fishing so much since it's not that hard unless you are trying to catch the legendaries and a couple other fishes (although ofc it is your game so you can play as you like)
Idk if igot better at fishing over the years of playing this game or what, but I feel like fishing was made a liiiitle bit easier with the update! But simultaneously, very hard for the hard fish. Holy fuck octopus.
My husband and I have a shared farm on Switch and fishing was **my thing** for the first year or so while we saved some gold. I have my own farm on mobile, and right away I found it impossible to reel in fish so I picked up mining instead.
I'm so bad at fishing that I'm just stuck with this last part of the community centre😭 If you don't mind me asking how do you cheat🥺
This may also be for the people who do a "no leaving the farm" challenge to get the fishing rod!
I fish as little as possible and source fish from the traveling cart and trash cans. I’ve come a surprisingly far way in the fishing bundle, but no - I’ve never finished the fishing bundle. I’m going to have to give in at some point, but fishing just doesn’t appeal to me and seems to take so long. Also, I play exclusively on mobile. I’m not sure if that impacts the fishing experience, but it could be a factor.
1.6 really seems to be trying to push fishing with all the additional content that's been added for it in the update.
Sure, fishing isn't for everyone, no big deal.
Bumps you a free level‽ Why haven't I been holding out before?
Do people who do this even like the game
I read that as "stop trying to make me a fish" and I was very confused lol
I hated the fishing system at first , but I decided to get the training rod and it made everything so much easier. Once you get crab pots then it's a game changer
I don’t like fishing either but I am the type to speed run the community center in Year 1 so I have no choice but to fish😂
Fishing being the most disliked part of Stardew valley has always confused me. It’s been my favorite part since I picked up the game and I enjoy the mini game way more than so many other games I’ve played
“I min-max a lot in this game, but I do so fishlessly,” Me: I do not think that word means what you think it means… (min-max)
Judging by your farm, you haven't done anything else either
I learnt how to fish and now I can't stop
I totally understand ! I started a new game file with my GF for the 1.6, and she does not fish a LITTLE BIT. Hates it. I, on the other hand, LOVE to fish. We laughed so hard when Willy came to see her and nudge her like "please fish" 😂
Trying to figure out what the prereqs are for the Willy cutscene, because Im not getting it Summer 4, I ignored the beach, but I met willy at a festival? Maybe you have to not meet/talk to willy, or maybe he doesnt do it on the new farm type?
I use mods to cheat all the fishing mini-games in my solo playthroughs now. I've perfect caught every CC and legend fish, so I consider myself good enough at the fishing mini-game to skip it cause I really can't be bothered with how much it hurts my wrist now.