This guide is going to quickly explain to you how to get better fishing poles in New World and explain everything you need to know about each Tier of fishing pole too.
They’re officially called ‘Fishing Poles’ in the game, but as I’ve always called them ‘fishing rods’ you might see me say that instead — please know that I mean the same thing regardless of whether I say pole or rod.
If you want to know how to improve your fishing rod in New World then everything will become very clear to you shortly.
Think of this as the definitive guide to fishing rods in New World.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Tier 1: Wooden Fishing Pole
If you don’t know where to get a fishing pole in the first place, you can get one by doing the beginner quests and speaking to Master Fisher Michael Shields. If you complete his quick task, he’ll award you with a Wooden Fishing Pole; a Tier 1 item.
It’s not the best, but at least you’ll be able to begin your New World fishing experience.
If you already completed this quest and somehow lost your fishing pole, or you just need to get your hands on a fishing pole in the first place and can’t be bothered to find Michael Shields, you can engineer yourself a Wooden Fishing Pole using a Workshop in any Settlement.
You don’t need any prior XP or leveling to engineer a Tier 1 or Tier 2 New World fishing pole so all you’ll need is to find the recipe ingredients.
For a Wooden Fishing Pole (Tier 1), you’ll need 1 x Green Wood and 1 x Fiber.
You won’t get any engineering XP for making these rods, though.
If you want to improve on the basic Tier I Wooden Fishing Pole, you have two options:
- Engineer yourself a better rod
- Buy one at the Trading Post
If you’re a beginner player, you should probably try engineering yourself a Tier 2 rod; the Treated Wood Fishing Pole.
Tier 2: Treated Wood Fishing Pole
To engineer a Treated Wood Fishing Pole you’ll need 12 x Tier 2 Timber, 3 x Course Leather and 2 x Linen.
The interesting thing about this recipe is that you’ll have to make use of other workstations to get your hands on these; a Woodshop for the Timber, a Tannery for the Coarse Leather and a Loom for the Linen. Or, again you can buy these ingredients, but if you’re going to buy them then you may as well just buy the rod in the first place as these are only cheap.
If you want to know where to buy fishing rods in New World, the only place to do so is at the Trading Post.
My Treated Wood Fishing Pole has the Sturdy II perk, making it 20% more durable — it needs repairing less often and takes a little less time to pull hooked fish in. Perks can be added by mixing Azoth into the recipe.
You only need to be Level 4 to equip the Treated Wood Fishing Pole, meaning almost every player on the game should be able to equip it by the time they actually get round to using it.
Tier 3: Aged Wood Fishing Pole
To engineer an Aged Wood Fishing Pole — a Tier 3 item — you’ll need to meet a few requirements first.
You’ll need:
- 13 x Tier 3 Lumber
- 3 x Coarse Leather
- 2 x Linen
- Minimum Engineering skill of 50
- A Tier 3 Workshop
As it’s harder to meet the requirements of engineering this item, I just bought one from the Trading Post. It cost me 150 coins but this was during the Beta and pricing in every world and every server is different.
I browsed the cheapest options and bought the Aged Wood Fishing Pole with the best perks; mine has Lucky Day I and Freshwater Colossus I, meaning I catch a small number of better fish in the daytime and a small number of larger fish in freshwater.
Combining these with Firefly Bait, which gives a large boost to catching better fish, should result in a much higher success rate of catching bigger, rarer fish overall.
You need to be Level 18 to equip this fishing pole.
Due to the difficulty of engineering, anything better than Tier 3 is going to be a little pricey to buy.
Tier 4: Wyrdwood Fishing Pole
To engineer a Wyrdwood Fishing Pole, you’ll need:
- 14 x Tier 4 Timber (such as Wyrdwood Planks)
- 3 x Coarse Leather
- 2 x Linen
- Minimum of 100 Engineering skill
- A Tier 4 Workshop
You also need to be Level 40 or above to equip it.
Tier 5: Ironwood Fishing Pole
To get a Tier 5 fishing pole in New World — the Ironwood Fishing Pole — you’ll need to hit some pretty tough-to-meet requirements:
- 15 x Tier 5 Timber (e.g. Ironwood Planks)
- 3 x Coarse Leather
- 2 x Linen
- Minimum of 150 Engineering skill
- A Tier 5 Workshop
This is one of the best New World fishing poles and you’ll need to be at least Level 60 to equip it.
If you’re going to go to the effort of engineering these, you may as well max out the Azoth and add a special resource to get the best perks for the rod too.
The basic Tier 5 fishing pole already has a potential gear score of 470-500 and it can fit up to 4 perks too.
Legendary Fishing Poles
Under Tier 5 fishing poles, there are also legendary fishing poles available.
There are 4 types of legendary fishing pole.
- Ancient Fishing Pole
- Angry Earth Fishing Pole
- Corrupted Fishing Pole
- Lost Fishing Pole
If you want to know how to get a legendary fishing rod in New World, the only way to get these legendary fishing poles is by finishing the whole fishing quest chain. The quest starts with Fishing With Shields and the rest will follow.
- Fishing With Shields
- Fishing Basics
- Baited
- Hotspot Hunt
- Practice Makes Perfect
- The Giant Ones
- Fish Reagents
- Reel Life
- Weapons of the Sea
- Treasure of the Deep
- Soulwarden Rations
- Azoth-Tinged Fish
- Corruption-Tinged Fish
- Ecological Report
- To be a Grand Master
Most of these fishing quests require you to fish which should be time-consuming. None of them are hard, but it will take you a few days to finish the whole fishing chain quests.
The legendary New World fishing rod mentioned also belong to Tier 5, but with unique perks and mods. If you want to make money out of fishing, this will be the pinnacle.
What Are Special Resources on Fishing Poles?
There are three types of special resources on fishing poles in New World but you can only use a maximum of one per pole crafted. Special resources ensure that perks are less random and instead go towards boosting what you’d most like boosting on the rod.
You can add a Sliver of Adamant to get the Durable perk, a Drop of Azoth Oil to get the Extraction perk, or a Small Elk Hoof to get the Alacrity perk.
