New World Fishing Luck Guide (Season 9)
Fishing Luck in New World is important to increase your chances at catching higher quality fish. It does this indirectly by decreasing your chances at catching lower quality fish.
Without any adjustments or fishing at a hotspot, your chances of catching a legendary fish are 6.25% or 6 out of every 100 casts. With maximum fishing luck at a 3 star hotspot, your chances to catch a legendary fish are increased to 26.25%. The details in this guide, that are updated for Season 9, will help you get as close as you can to maximum efficiency at catching legendary fish. Fishing in open water works differently, and will not be covered in this guide.
How Fishing Luck Works
As a baseline, fishing in a 1 star hotspot with no luck has you roll on a loot table from 1-400,000. Each category of fish and chests have their own thresholds or zones indicating what you catch based on the number it rolls in the background.
Fishing in a 1 Star Hotspot with No Luck
| Rarity | Threshold | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 1 | 62.50% |
| Uncommon | 250000 | 16.25% |
| Rare | 315000 | 11.00% |
| Chest | 359000 | 4.00% |
| Random Legendary | 375000 | 1.25% |
| Legendary | 380000 | 5.00% |
| Max | 400000 | 100.00% |
Fishing in a 3 Star Hotspot with No Luck
If you haven’t bothered to upgrade any of your fishing gear, and you still throw your line into a designated 3 star fishing hotspot that you have a high enough fishing level to access, your fishing loot table now starts at 243,300 updating your probabilities to the following:
| Rarity | Threshold | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 243300 | 4.28% |
| Uncommon | 250000 | 41.48% |
| Rare | 315000 | 28.08% |
| Chest | 359000 | 10.21% |
| Random Legendary | 375000 | 3.19% |
| Legendary | 380000 | 12.76% |
| Max | 400000 | 100.00% |
Fishing in a 3 Star Hotspot with Max Luck
With fully optimized gear, attributes, and bonuses for improving fishing Luck your fishing loot table now starts at 304,950. The amount each piece of gear adds will be detailed below. Your probabilities of catching certain types of fish are updated to the following:
| Rarity | Threshold | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Uncommon | 304950 | 10.57% |
| Rare | 315000 | 46.29% |
| Chest | 359000 | 16.83% |
| Random Legendary | 375000 | 5.26% |
| Legendary | 380000 | 21.04% |
| Max | 400000 | 100.00% |
Notice how Common fish are no longer on the drop table, and the probability of catching Uncommon fish has shrunk to 10%. With the remaining fishing loot table only rolling from 304,950 to 400,000 you now have a 21% chance at catching the exact legendary fish you are targeting, or 1 in 5 casts.
Check out our Fishing Luck Calculator to see where your current luck stands.
Fishing Luck Gear
Full Fishing Armor set (5x) each with the perk: Lucky Waters III
Tier 5 Fishing Rod with BOTH perks: Lucky Day III, Lucky Night III
3x Major Fishing Gathering Trophy
Below are the exact amounts of Fishing Luck Value added, making your Fishing Loot Table rolls start from much higher, all the way up to 304,950.
Fishing Luck Values
| Perk/Status Effect | Fishing Luck Value |
|---|---|
| Lucky waters III (x5) | 10,000 |
| T5 rod | 12,500 |
| Lucky Day/Night | 7,500 |
| Exceptional Fish bait | 15,000 |
| 350 Focus + 50 Con | 1,150 |
| Fishing Gathering Trophy (x3) | 15,000 |
| Lucks Labor IV song bonus | 500 |
| Total | 61,650 |
Max Fishing Luck Gear Example
This is the exact set I use to achieve Max Fishing Luck in New World, and have the highest possible chance to catch legendary fish. There are 2 easily attainable items from the main fishing quest with Lucky Waters III that will help you in completing this set: Captain King’s Crown and 1 reward from the Questing Bass Treasure Box which will be either a chest or gloves piece. Fingers crossed you get the chest, since a gloves replacement is easier than a chest replacement. Sunken Fishing Gear chests will be very valuable until you complete your fishing luck set.
Fisherman‘s Hat, Questing Skipper’s Smock, Fisherman’s Gloves
Sunken Fisherman Waders, Fisherman’s Boots, Artisan’s Fishing Pole
Advanced Tips
To build up a stockpile of Exceptional Fish Bait, after you hit 250 fishing, catch everything at 3 star hotspots. This will build up your Fishing Aptitude the quickest, and the easiest source of Exceptional Fish Bait is from aptitude crates.
Stockpile all your fishing chests, and aptitude crates for a big opening. Make sure to equip as much luck as you can. Based on my tests, this does has a positive effect on the rewards from both chests and crates.
When fishing, you can listen for sound queue’s when you first hook a fish, to identify what Tier of fish you have on the line. This can even get as granular as to help you target higher Tier chests, as long as you can visually identify if you caught a chest.
Certain events like the Halloween event can drop consumables that will boost fishing luck a bit further like Black Licorice.
Get help identifying your current fishing luck using our Fishing Luck Calculator.
