Fishing is the skill people name when they explain why they love RuneScape-style games. It is slow, it is calm, it is worth coin, and it is the thing you do while talking. Duskmere has it as one of ten skills, and this page covers how it works and, fairly, where else you can find it.
Fishing in Duskmere
- You get the rod in the first hour. The opening quest on Stormfen sends you to the fisherman at the pier, who hands you a fishing rod and asks for five raw fish. That is your Fishing level started before you have left the island.
- Spots are marked. Look for the disturbed patches of water at the edge of coasts and rivers. Use one with the rod equipped and you start pulling up fish.
- There is no minigame. No timing bar, no rhythm to learn. You use the spot, wait, get the fish, the level goes up. Early attempts fail more often; the odds climb with your level, the same as every gathering skill in the game.
- It caps at 99, on a deliberately slow curve where each level costs more than the last.
What the fish are for
Two things, and both matter more than they sound.
Food. Cooking turns raw fish into food that heals hitpoints, and food is your margin for error. Duskmere has no potion-free way to out-sustain a fight you misjudged. A stack of cooked fish is what lets you explore a region slightly above your level instead of dying repeatedly at its edge. Burn a few at first; everyone does.
Coin. Raw and cooked fish sell steadily on the Grand Exchange because everyone who fights needs food and not everyone fishes. It is one of the most dependable early incomes in the game.
Fishing also sits beside the game's other water: the sea voyage. From the mainland docks a pirate carries your party across the Deep Sea, an instanced crossing with its own wreck island, and the ocean out there is one of the better arguments for the engine's wave system. Fishing spots on the island are quieter than the mainland's.
Other MMORPGs with fishing
Honest list. Browser games first, because that is what this site is about; the client games after, because pretending they do not exist would be silly. Claims about other games are from their own sites.
| Game | Fishing | In a browser? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duskmere | A full skill feeding Cooking and the Grand Exchange | Yes | Ours. 3D, new and small. |
| Mirage Online Classic | States a full fishing skill among more than twenty | Yes | 2D; the deepest browser skill list |
| stein.world | Gathering and crafting skills | Yes | 2D pixel, cosy pace |
| Old School RuneScape | The Fishing skill everyone else copies | No, desktop client | The benchmark |
| RuneScape 3 | A modernised Fishing skill | No | |
| Final Fantasy XIV | The deepest fishing system in the genre | No | Subscription |
| Black Desert | AFK fishing tied to trade | No | |
| Albion Online | Fishing tied to the player economy | No |
If fishing in a browser is the requirement, it is Mirage or us, and Mirage has the longer skill list. If you want it in 3D with a boat to sail afterwards, that is Duskmere. The skills guide covers the other nine.