/fishing-guide
Trove Fishing, start to finish
Some fish only bite in one biome, at one height, at one time of day, on one rod. This page has every one of them, plus the lures, the skill tree, the daily quests and the pools that changed how fishing works.
Before you cast
Three things decide whether a cast is worth anything: the rod you're holding, the lure on it, and the liquid you're standing over. Get those right and the rest of this page is just a list of where to stand.
A rod per liquid
Water, lava, chocolate and plasma each need their own rod, crafted at the Boat Crafting Bench. A water rod will not fish lava.
Always run a lure
Cast without a lure and you catch no fish at all - only boots. This is the single most common reason fishing "isn't working".
Three rarities
Every fish is Common, Uncommon or Rare, worth 5, 10 or 25 Mastery the first time you catch it.
The rods that change what bites
Past the four basic rods, a handful of special rods exist purely to change the catch table. Two of them are how you reach fish that cannot be caught any other way - and two are rods you should take off when you want a plain rare.
Lures
Three kinds of lure, three grades each. The kind decides what the lure does; the grade decides how strongly. Pick a pair to see what you get and where it comes from.
The grades are a small step apart, not a wall. A blue lure still works; a yellow one just works a little better. Don't hold off fishing until you've unlocked the best one.
The fishing skill tree
Fishing has its own tree, spent with two currencies you fish up yourself. Most of it is small bonuses - but four specific nodes are the ones people actually chase. Hover a marked node to see what it hands you.
Schematic - branch shapes are simplified, and it's drawn from a tree screenshot by Asled. The four highlighted node types are what matters.
What opens a node
Key of the Depths — opens the large nodes.
Trophy of the Depths — opens the small nodes.
If you only take one line, take the blue one. It unlocks the turtle rod and the merchant that sells the best lures, so it gates two things at once.
Daily quests
An NPC in the hub sells fishing quests every day, paid out in Marks. Three normally; six once the tree node is open. Tap a slot to change its tier and watch the payout.
Random any liquid counts
Specific one named liquid only
Fishing pools
Pools are pockets of liquid holding their own fish, and they exist in all four liquids. They hold a limited number of fish, they close when you empty them, and - the part that catches people out - each pool only ever gives you one of its three groups.
One group per pool
Every pool rolls one of three fish groups. The first fish you pull decides which - after that the pool only gives you that group's pair, so a fish you need may simply not be in this pool. Move on and open another.
Pools run dry
A pool holds a set number of fish and closes once they're gone. One skill-tree node gives it a chance to refill, but it's a roll, not a guarantee.
Rare pools
Some pools spawn as rare pools and give 100% rares. You can spot one by its size: only 3-4 fish inside. If you find one, fish it out before you do anything else.
Finding them
Pools are subtle at a distance - a ring on the surface with fish circling in it. Two things make them obvious:
/shadercomplexity 0
Flattens the liquid shader so pool rings stand out from across the map. Run it again with a different value to put the shaders back.
Marks every pool and prints how many fish are left in it - the only reliable way to spot a 3-4 fish rare pool before you've spent casts on it.
Water
The starting liquid, and the one with the most conditional fish by a distance - two of its rares depend on the time of day and five need a specific rod.
Lava
Lava's uncommons are almost all ore fish, which makes them the most biome-bound catches in the game - and the only place a rare pool has its own exclusive fish.
Chocolate
Chocolate hides its rares behind height rather than biome: one set only bites 200 blocks up, another only near bedrock.
Plasma
Plasma has no plain rare at all. Every rare in it is conditional, and the conditions carve the world up by height and by zone - so the fish you get is decided before you cast.
The four turtles
Turtles are their own small collection: one per liquid, all rare, all needing the Turtle Trawler rod from the blue line of the skill tree. Each one lives in exactly one place - and none of them will ever come out of a pool.
Fish these outside pools. Standing in a pool with the Turtle Trawler is the usual reason a turtle never shows up.
Every fish, searchable
The whole catch list in one table - name, liquid, rarity, Mastery and the condition it needs. Type a fish, a biome or a rod and it filters as you go.
Go fill the codex
Rod, lure, liquid, place. That's the whole game - the rest is knowing which fish wants which. Take it into the tools.