There are plenty of activities to do in your free time in Metaphor: ReFantazio, some of which will grant you items to use for other things. While not available right away, you will eventually be able to unlock the ability to do some fishing upon reaching the Virga Island portion of the story. Unfortunately, it’s not actually a minigame, but rather something you can do to receive some cooking ingredients.

Unlocking Fishing in Metaphor¶

As mentioned above, you won’t be able to fish until you reach the Virga Island portion of the main story. In fact, this will be the only area in the game in which you can fish, due to the runner having to traverse the currents. You will first unlock fishing on 8/14, with it located on the Deck of your gauntlet runner. There are two important things to know about the fishing, with the first being you cannot do it during inclement weather (very bad weather). The second thing that’s relevant is that you need to bait in order to actually fish.

Bait Locations¶

So, where do you get this bait at then? Well, there are three types of bait in the game, with two of them (Worm Bait and Grasshopper Bait) being really easy to acquire. The third type of bait, Tail Bait, is a little harder to get a hold of, but it’s probably the most important of them all.

Worm Bait¶

You can purchase this bait from the Bug-Selling Boy in Martira. You’ll find him in the Cattleracket Road area of the town, and he’ll sell you these one at a time for 100 Reeves.

Grasshopper Bait¶

This is another bait that can be bought from the Bug-Selling Boy in Martira. It costs 250 Reeves, though, so it’s a tiny bit more expensive.

Tail Bait¶

The rarest of the three baits, the Tail Bait cannot be bought, so you will need to find another method in obtaining them. There are two renewable sources of the Tail Bait, but both of them require you to spend some time. In fact, both are on your runner, so you will need to be moving to do this. The first option is to plant a seed in the planter, then harvest it the next day. Note that it seems the higher quality seed is needed here and you’re not guaranteed to always get a Tail Bait from the harvest, so save before doing that.

The other option for getting Tail Baits is from the hull area, where you can do some cleaning. Specifically, go to the Cleaning Tool and opt for tidy up the Storage Room. You should receive two Tail Baits here, but if not, make a save before doing it to try again.

How to Fish in Metaphor¶

Once you have gotten some bait, it’s time to finally do some fishing. As mentioned earlier, you won’t be able to fish until you reach 8/14 in the main story, plus you’ll only be able to do it in the Virga Island area. Your runner also has to be moving, so try to do this while you’re doing other quests/dungeons. Also, one last thing is you won’t be able to fish if the weather is really bad, which only really seems to be around the Spire of Blind Faith and the Land of Ceremony optional dungeons.

When you’re ready, head out onto the deck and you should see a fishing station set up for you. You fish with Heismay here, although he doesn’t really have any baring on the outcome. Upon first starting to fish, you will have to pick one of the baits, which affects the item you will obtain from fishing.

• Worm Bait: Limp Goldfish
• Grasshopper Bait: Brocaded Koi
• Tail Bait: Lord of the Lake

After choosing the bait, the fishing will go on for a little bit, then you will be asked to choose an option. This is where the brunt of the fishing comes from in the game, as the option you pick will determine the items you receive. One option will always give you the item above, along with a Lone Boot, another one will give you two of the items above, and the third will give you the item and two Queen’s Honey Jars. Given the rarity of the Honey Jars, you should always pick this choice to get the most out of the fishing (the Lone Boot is an item you sell for money).

Of course, there are three different questions/sets of answers, so you won’t really know what to choose.

If you wish to make all of the recipes in the game, then you will have to do a little bit of fishing, since the Lord of the Lake and Queen’s Honey Jar are only really obtained from here.