Starting Small – Getting the Hang of Fishing
stargrace 
I mentioned in my first post about Black Desert Online that there were many different systems within the game that I would have to learn, and I’m slowly trying to get the hang of each one. Combat was simple enough, I’ve had no issues figuring out how to perform my combos or defeating creatures. Next up I decided to learn fishing, which is pretty simple.
I’m in Velia, bought a rod from Crio, and picked up two fishing quests from him. Went and found some water – there’s a ton of people gathered around but since I’m fishing while I write this post, I don’t mind if it takes a bit of time to catch anything. I equipped my rod, faced the water, and hit the space bar. After some time you’ll get a message: “Something is biting. Press the ‘Space’ to start.” – if you hit space you’ll launch into a little mini game. If you don’t hit space, you’ll have a three minute wait and then auto fish. You’ll cast your line out again after those three minutes are up, too.
The mini games caught me off guard at first, but thanks to this video by Pvt Wiggles it made sense really quickly. Hit space when the moving bar is in the blue, and you’ll move on to the second part of the mini game which is a repetition of wasd in various patterns. I managed to catch a Starfish, which was required by one quest, but I’m still working on the Mudskipper.
Your rod takes damage as you fish, and you can’t repair rods (according to the flashing message I see that tells me I need to repair) so I suppose I’ll need a better rod. If you’re going to fish AFK keeping a few rods in your inventory is a good idea (or so I’ve heard).
Sure, this is just one system out of many that I’ll need to learn, and yes, it’s one of the easier ones to pick up, but I really enjoy the complexity of the game, and learning how these systems interact with one another is fascinating. Once you’ve caught your fish, you’ll want to head to a Trade Manager to sell. If you’re not sure where that NPC is you can click on the NPC button on the top left side of your mini map and track them down.
Next up? Uhh. I haven’t really thought about it. Maybe I’ll learn how nodes work, or maybe I’ll figure out how to join the rest of my friends in-game. I know I play on the same server / channel as them, but no idea how to see about getting a guild invite. Having people to talk to would certainly be nice.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!