Rods
Every captain owns one rod, and it grows with you. Each rod in the game is a node of the rod tree: unlocking a node adds its upgrade to your rod for good, and gives you its look. You start with the Driftwood Rod, and the main line runs region by region up to the Abyss Rod. Each region also has side branches that each add a little of one strength, and four rods are never sold: they come from boss lairs, a secret and the Captain’s Pass.
You buy upgrades at the tree table in the Rod Workshop. Pick a card to see what it adds to your rod, choose BUY with coins or Crowns, then press CONFIRM at the other end of the row. A node needs every rod that leads into it, so the table also shows what is still missing on the way. If you find an earned rod before you own the rod it hangs from, its look is yours at once and its upgrade joins your rod when you reach it.
Upgrades add up. Your rod always fishes with everything you have unlocked, side branches included, so there is nothing to switch between and no upgrade ever makes it worse. Buying never changes how your rod looks; you choose that separately, at the effects stand or from your log (see Rod looks and colorways).
Your rod’s power decides how heavy a fish you can land, and a higher rod hits bosses harder. It also sets the most a catch can sell for, fixed at the moment you cast, so a fish keeps that value even after you upgrade.
To fine-tune your rod, visit the tuning bench in the Lobby House. Set your rod in the upright stand beside it, then pull one of the levers for control, reel speed or drag: the first pull shows the cost, a second pull tunes it for coins and that region’s gems. Tuning belongs to your rod, so it stays as you upgrade within a region; when your rod moves up to the next region’s main line, you get back what you spent on it and can tune again there.
The rod tree
Section titled “The rod tree”All rods
Section titled “All rods”
