Oddly enough learning how to fish in V Rising will come in handy if you want to unlock a certain shape-shifting form. I’m sure fishing is one of the last things you’d think you would be doing in a vampire survival game. But guess what, here we are.
Fishing is important to get certain resources like Fish Bones if you want to summon the Putrid Rat boss. Or even if you just want to summon a lower-tier Giant Rat enemy at your Vermin Nest. Our guide covers everything from how to get a Fishing Pole to how to actually use it. And what to do with fish as well.
How to Fish in V Rising
How to Get a Fishing Pole
Rufus the Foreman is the third V Blood Carrier at level 20. As long as you’re within a few levels of Rufus you can likely take them out.
Before you can start fishing and gathering Fish Bones, you’ll need to get a Fishing Pole. While that may sound obvious, it can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. A big part of the way progression works in V Rising is by hunting down V Blood carriers. These are essentially bosses or tough elite enemies.
As long as your gear level is high enough, you can use the Blood Altar to track them down. First, you’ll need to defeat Rufus the Foreman to unlock the Woodworking Bench. This is where you can craft the Fishing Pole recipe. Fortunately, the Woodworking Bench only requires 12 Planks and 60 Animal Hides to build.
You won’t have access to the Woodworking Bench until beating Rufus the Foreman. This also unlocks a few other useful recipes like the Hunter’s Crossbow.
Unlike the bench, you’ll need another 8 Planks, 4 Copper Ingots, and 4 Coarse Thread to craft the Fishing Pole. If you haven’t already, you can get Coarse Thread by hunting bandits and breaking objects in bandit camps. By pressing M to check the map, you can hover over camps to see what resources are common there. Unfortunately, this also includes tiny bandit camps sometimes with only a few bandits there.
Once you have a Fishing Pole, it’s time to search for somewhere to use it. Make sure you finish reading the next section before trying to use your pole. It’s easy to make a mistake and immediately lose your fishing spot.
Find a Spot to Fish in V Rising
Take advantage of Vampire Waygates to fast travel to different areas if you’re having trouble finding fish.
While you can find fish in almost any source of water, even tiny little ponds, you can’t fish anywhere. You’ll need to search for a white cloudy-looking circle on top of the water. For an idea of what it looks like you can check out the screenshot above. If you try using your Fishing Pole at a lake or pond without one of these spots, nothing will happen.
This is likely where a lot of the confusion is in V Rising regarding how to fish. However, that isn’t where this guide ends since you still need to successfully catch your fish. Fortunately, it isn’t too complicated, but it is still easy to mess up. Once you have a spot, left-click to use your pole on it. Make sure you don’t hold left-click as this will immediately remove the fishing spot.
Be careful to not miss the giant splash shown in this screenshot when you’re supposed to click to reel the fish in. This should only take around five seconds.
My guess is that the game assumes you’re trying to use the fishing pole a second time to catch the fish. Even though you have to wait for a certain moment before clicking a second time. This is shown by a big splash of water near the fishing spot and a loud sound as well. Don’t mistake the bubbling sound for it.
Once you hear that sound or see the splash/pulse, make sure to left-click and get your fish. You’ll need to grab the fish or item off the floor. I recommend always keeping your Fishing Pole on you since you never know when you’ll find a fishing spot. They definitely feel rare, but you’re bound to have more luck in regions with more water.
How to Get Fish Bones in V Rising
The Devourer is nice to have when you’re trying to get rid of old gear or items cluttering your storage in V Rising.
If you’re not quite sure how to get Fish Bones for a recipe, here’s what you need to know. While you can get them as a drop from bandits and sometimes objects like barrels, this isn’t reliable. You’ll need to go fishing instead as explained in the previous sections. This is because you can salvage fish for their bones and other resources too like Fish Oil and Scales.
With that said, you’ll likely need to progress further in V Rising and take out another V Blood Carrier before you can salvage items. You’ll have to defeat Lidia the Chaos Archer to unlock The Devourer structure. This makes it so you can salvage items like old gear, extra weapons you loot, and fish. For what’s it worth, you may want to save your old gear for when you start getting servants.
Unlike most of the V Blood Carriers, you can’t track the rat boss down using the Blood Altar. You’ll need to get a little creative with the Vermin Nest to unlock this Rat Form.
That’s all there is to this V Rising guide on how to fish. You’ll definitely want to take advantage of those fishing spots so you can unlock the spooky Rat Form. This helps with sneaking around when you don’t want to deal with enemies. Plus, you can get items from fishing too like the Rusted Helmet.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.