Today we are going to guide you through to angling success. Fishing is one of the ways to become self sufficient in Project Zomboid. Through fishing you can obviously catch fish and have yourself an infinite source of delicious food in this zombie apocalypse. We will talk about some of the best places you can loot a fishing rod in Project Zomboid and how one can be crafted.
How can I get a fishing rod in Project Zomboid?
Generally speaking when playing alone, there are 2 different ways of obtaining a fishing rod:
(You can click the links below to skip straight to that part of the guide)
- Looting a Fishing Rod from a container
– Areas to look for a fishing rod - Crafting a Fishing Rod
– Learning how to craft a fishing rod
– What you need to craft the fishing rod
– How to assemble the fishing rod
These are the only ways of getting one outside of trading with other players (when multiplayer is released), or spawning one in via commands. The following guide will dive in to how to achieve both of these methods the best way.
Looting a Fishing Rod from a container
Though this method simply relies on luck, it can be the absolute easiest way to get a fishing rod. It is as simple as it sounds. Look around on shelves and in boxes to hopefully find yourself a fishing rod.
This can prove to be pretty tiresome as fishing rods are, generally speaking, a fairly rare item spawn. If you want to give yourself a better chance at finding certain items in the game, although it is a bit gamey, you can tweak certain item spawn chances in the options when creating a custom sandbox game.
Areas to look for a fishing rod
There are a few different areas that can be useful on your search for that fish catcher 3000. Certain buildings and areas have a higher chance to spawn specific items. Much like in real life, you can expect to find guns in a police station and fire axes in a fire station. So where do you have a better chance at finding fishing equipment? Well here are a few areas to look out for with links to their locations on the Project Zomboid Map Project:
- Garden sheds at the back of houses
- Lone shacks in the forest are prime places to look out for
- Hardware stores like this one found in Westpoint
Crafting a Fishing Rod
Fishing rods can be crafted just like any item in Project Zomboid. But, just like any other item, you will need to have the crafting recipe learnt first and all of the required tools and materials. Crafting a fishing rod is fairly easy in Project Zomboid but will require you to find some items that are luck based in their acquisition.
Learning how to craft a rod
First thing you will need to even know how to craft a fishing rod is the Angler USA Magazine. You will have to find this magazine somewhere in your travels across Knox County and read it. The book has a decent spawn rate and can be found in the bookcases of houses throughout the region. If you want an even better chance at finding it, check out the book store in Westpoint.
What you need to craft the rod
To craft a fishing rod you will need the following items:
- A sturdy stick
You can get a sturdy stick through crafting. You will need a plank and a saw. Simply craft 8 sturdy sticks from one plank using the crafting menu. You can get planks from nature by cutting down trees with an axe and crafting planks from the logs of wood you collect. - Twine (2 units) or fishing line
Twine can be looted like most other items. You can find twine mostly in the garages of houses and quite commonly in hardware store across the map. Each roll of twine has 5 units, meaning that you can make one and a half fishing rods from each roll of twine you find.
Fishing line is more durable than twine for making fishing rods but is a rarer item to find. Best chance is to look in hardware stores for fishing line. - Some type of knife
You will also need to use some type of knife to craft the fishing rod, although it will not be consumed. A kitchen knife or stone knife will be fine.
Assembling the rod
Once you have all of the items above and have read the Angler USA magazine you can assemble your very own fishing rod! It’s durability will depend on your skills in relation to crafting and also whether you used twine or fishing line to create your rod.
Now to get to the water and try it out
Congratulations! You’ve read the entire guide. Now that you have your fishing rod you better go out and try to catch your own food. This makes solving the food probably quite a bit easier as you can fish in lakes and rivers around the map of Project Zomboid. You are on your way to becoming self sustainable. Now that you can fish, read our guide on How to fish in Project Zomboid to catch your next meal.
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