Because of it’s repairable nature and AFK fishing buffs, the Balenos Fishing Rod is the preferred fishing rod for AFK fishers. During fishing events, expect the demand and price for these to increase.
Balenos Fishing Rod Benefits:
- No Fishing Level restriction. Use on any noobie fisher.
- Cheap repairs when the Durability is low.
- Gives up to +25% AFK Fishing Time Reduction.
- Has up to 100 Max Durability.
- Can be branded to reduce durability consumption.
- Fairly easy to craft in a Tool Workshop.
Balenos Fishing Rod is often spoken as being the best rod overall. Most will recommend it to be the first fishing rod you should acquire and enhance. There are a couple reasons for this: Overnight AFK fishing & BDO’s numerous fishing events.
Every player has down time, sleep time—at least we hope! Who wouldn’t want to make extra income ingame while doing real life things?
There are many Events in BDO that center around fishing and provide special drops. Since Balenos rod decreases AFK fishing time by 25%, it increases the chances of getting those drops in a shorter time frame.
Why AFK Fish?
Even outside of BDO fishing events, AFK Fishing is an effortless way to earn AFK income, especially if you have a full Inventory of 192 slots. Besides selling fish to Imperial Delivery or Trade Managers, there’s other fishing loot like Ancient Relic Crystal Shards and Discarded Glass Bottles that can provide extra income.
Ancient Relic Crystal Shard
Relic Shards do not stack in your inventory, but if you have high enough Fishing level, you can discard lower grade fish so you have more room for Relic Shards.
Relic Shard drop rate depends on several factors:
- Location (inland is better than sea)
- Fishing Resources (Abundant is best)
- Fishing Mastery (higher mastery increases relic shard drop rate)
- Fishing Speed (max out Fishing Ability and Auto-fishing Time reduction)
Five Relic Shards combine into a boss summon scroll. These summon scrolls are a reliable way of obtaining Memory Fragments which are used to repair Max Durability on gear.
Other Valuable Fishing Drops
There are other valuable items, like Discarded Glass Bottle, that can be obtained while AFK fishing.
※ Exchange NPC
– Major City = Liana
– Velia = Crio
※ Exchange List
– x5 = Crio’s Sturdy Fishing Chair x1
– x5 = Silver Key x15
– x5 = Breezy Conch Seaweed x1
– x5 = 900 Contribution EXP + 30 Fishing EXP
Ancient Relic Crystal Shard – creates a scroll to farm Memory Fragments used to repair max Durability during Enhancement.
Silver Key – exchange for Gold Key to open Golden Treasure Chest
Breezy Conch Seaweed – Courser Training – Elegance (Diné). Increases Training Level by 1%
Laila’s Petal – used to obtain a Fairy or to gain Enhancement Chance with Fairy’s Blessing
Bottle with a Note – extremely rare (Kama and Dreighan)
- There is a chance of obtaining a treasure map upon opening a Bottle with a Note.
- Right-click the treasure map to receive a treasure hunting quest.
- Based on the quest content, figure out the location of the treasure and dig it up.
- Hand over the treasure to Marzana in Ibellab Oasis to receive Sealed Golden Treasure Chest as a reward.
- Use a Gold Key to open the Sealed Golden Treasure Chest.
Giant Fish Bone – extremely rare housing furniture (Kama and Dreighan)
Rare Prize Fish – red grade fish worth a higher amount of silver at Trade Managers.
Tear of the Ocean at Papua Crinea. Material to upgrade to a Carrack ship.
Plump Coelacanth – exchange for materials with Fughar or sell for 500k each.
Plump Coelacanth
Plump Coelacanth is fished up in specific areas in the world of BDO. See maps below. These fish can be exchanged for rewards through your Currency Chest UI which is accessed by clicking the treasure chest icon at the top of your game window.
- Click the Manage Currency iconÂ
 at the top right of the screen OR… - Menu (Esc) → Rewards (F3) → Manage Currency Menu
Weekly exchanges reset on Wednesdays 6:00 PM Central Time (Thursday 00:00 UTC).
Plump Coelacanth Exchanges:
| Limits | Coelacanth Required | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| 1x per Family | 50 |  Advice of Valks (+60) |
| 25 |  Choose Your Concentrated Boss Crystal Box x1 |
|
| 3x per Family | 25 |  * Dreamy Crystal of Balance x7 |
| 20 |  3 Tuvala Weapon Exchange Coupons |
|
| 1x per Week per Family | 20 |  [Event] Courser Training Box |
| 12 |  [Event] Enhancement Help Kit I |
|
| 10 |  Combat & Skill EXP 300% Scroll x5 |
|
| 7 | Advice of Valks (+40) |
|
| 4 |  Yona’s Fragment x5 |
|
| 3 |  Magical Shard x5 |
|
| 3 |  Mass of Pure Magic x5 |
|
| Unlimited | 1 |  5x Gold Bar 1G (500,000 silver) |
*Dreamy Crystal of Balance grants 100% chance to enhance a TRI (III) or higher Capotia accessory up to PEN (V).
Plump Coelacanth Fishing Locations
You can fish Plump Coelacanth with a Fishing Rod at the following locations. The one in Velia is the easiest to find and is also considered a fishing hotspot, which means it gives more than normal high grade fish. (Just look for the large group of players along the beach west of Velia.)
Velia Fishing
Heidel Fishing
Altinova Fishing
Grana Fishing
Duvencrune Fishing
Valencia Fishing
BDO Fishing Events
BDO often has fishing events, where you can fish up special event items like [Event] Plump Gizzard Shad.
These items vendor directly for silver and/or can be exchanged for other useful items.
Imperial Fishing Delivery
Some blue and yellow grade fish can be sold to the Imperial Fishing Delivery for 2.5x their base monetary value and Imperial Fishing Seals which can be exchanged for other items.
Use the NPC finder and search “imperial fishing” for an Imperial Fishing Delivery NPC near you.
Imerial Fishing Delivery NPC Info:
- Imperial Fishing NPCs have a buy limit for each fish type.
- Buy limit resets every 4ish hours with a random number.
- When buy limit is reached, NPC will no longer buy that fish.
- If buy limit has been reached, try switching servers or selling somewhere else.
- NO distance bonus for selling fish to Imperial Fishing NPCs.
- Fish not sold to Imperial Fishing NPC can be sold to Trade Manager even if fish is expired.
- Expect 1 Imperial Fishing Seal for Blue grade fish; 1-2 for Yellow grade fish.
Imperial Fishing Seals
Twenty-five Imperial Fishing seals can be exchanged for a Breezy Conch Seaweed. This in-demand item is used in Dream Horse attempts.
You can also exchange seals for Manos Fisher’s Clothes, Gold Key, and Black Essences Addis & Carmae which are used to craft Black Magic Crystals.
How to Use Imperial Fishing Seals:
- Click the Manage Currency icon  at the top right of the screen OR…
- Menu (Esc) → Rewards (F3) → Manage Currency Menu
How to AFK Fish
Locate a safe spot next to any decently sized fountain, pool, pond, river, lake, or ocean.
- Walk up to the water.
- Press and hold the ‘ (apostrophe) key located left of the ENTER key.
- Make sure the Fishing Rod icon is highlighted in yelow. If not, move mouse to select the fishing stance.
- Release the ‘ (apostrophe) key while the Fishing Rod icon is highlighted.
- An AFK Fishing UI will appear that allows you to start fishing.
Note: Since patch, you no longer need to equip a fishing rod to fish. However, fishing rods have various beneficial buffs.
Optional Fishing Rod & Float
Optionally, you can equip a fishing rod or float to decrease AFK Fishing time or increase better loot chances.
Character Inventory (I) → LIFE button.
- This opens up your shared Family Life Equipment for gathering and fishing tools.
- In order to use a fishing rod or float, you must first equip them from your character inventory into your Family Life Equipment window.
- RMB each fishing tool you want to equip.
- Now every character on your account will be able to use your fishing rod and float.
View animations on how to equip a fishing rod:
- Find the LIFE button in the Character Inventory (I).
- Move fishing rod into the Family Life Equipment window.
The Fishing UI
Simply press the SPACE BAR to begin AFK fishing. The game will take over from there, automatically collecting your catch and recasting your line.
Fishing Resources are depleted when there are more people fishing in the same location for extended periods of time. Abundant Resources decrease fishing time and increase profit.
Be sure to check the box Do not board other adventurers’ ships. This prevents another player from picking you up on their boat and transporting you and/or killing you.
AFK Fish Discard
Depending on your Fishing Level, you can set the grade of fish you want to automatically discard while AFK fishing.
This option only discards fish. It does not discard Event items (Plump Coelacanth) or non-fish items like Ancient Relic Crystal Shard, Silver Key, and Discarded Glass Bottle.
| Fishing Level: | Discards Fish: |
|---|---|
| Professional | White, Green |
| Artisan | White, Green, Blue |
| Master | White, Green, Blue, Yellow |
Abundant Fishing Resources
Abundant fishing resources decrease your First Bite Timer.
Example of an overnight AFK Fishing haul with 192 fishing inventory at different Fishing Resources:
- Abundant:Â Inventory full (176 fish) and 9 to 16 Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
- Average:Â 130 fish + 6 to 12 Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
- Not Enough:Â 90 fish + 4 to 8 Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
- Exhausted:Â 50 fish + 2 to 4 Ancient Relic Crystal Shards
One thing to keep in mind is that the water tables are shared across all server channels. This means even if your channel is empty of other players, your favorite fishing spot might be Exhausted.
How to Decrease AFK Fishing Time
There are 3 ways to decrease fishing time when AFK fishing:
- Fishing in water that indicates Abundant Fishing Resources
- Decreasing First Bite Timer
- Decreasing Auto-fishing Time
There are two Fishing timers when AFK fishing:
- First Bite Timer: fishing time from initial cast to first bite.
- First bite is indicated by a wiggling fish icon above your character’s head.
- Fishing Ability levels decrease this timer.
- Auto-fishing Timer: fishing time from first bite to auto-collection of catch (AFK fishing only).
- Base Auto-fishing time is 3 minutes from bite to collection.
- Auto-fishing Time reduction items decrease this timer.
The Balenos Fishing Rod is an item that reduces Auto-fishing time by a certain percentage based on its level of enhancement. See below on how to craft a Balenos Fishing Rod and how to enhance it.
There are many other items you can use besides the Balenos Fishing Rod to decrease these 2 timers.
Fishing Ability Level (First Bite Timer)
Higher Fishing Ability levels decrease the time it takes the fish to bite. It can be raised to a maximum of 5 levels.
View your Fishing Ability level by pressing P key and then Battle Stats button.
| Fishing Ability Level: | Decreases Bite Time By: |
|---|---|
| 0 | 15% |
| 1 | 30% |
| 2 | 35% |
| 3 | 40% |
| 4 | 45% |
| 5 | 50% |
The easiest way to permanently increase Fishing Ability level to +5:
- Join a guild that has their +3 Fishing skill trained
- Wear Silver Embroidered Fisher’s Clothes enhanced to +2 or higher.
Permanent Fishing Ability Buffs
- Guild Bonus +1-3
- Silver Embroidered Fisher’s Clothes +1-3
- Life Mastery Fisher’s Clothes +1-3
- Apprentice Fisher’s Uniform +1
- *Life Alchemy Stone +1-3
- *Thick Fishing Rod +1
- *Steel Fishing Rod +2
- *Golden Fishing Rod +3
- *Fughar’s Fishing Rod +2 (Season only)
- Splat Fisher’s Clothes +1 (Pearl Shop)
- Pet Skill +1 (Pearl Shop – RNG chance)
*Item’s Durability will need to be repaired.
Temporary Fishing Ability Buffs
- Life Spirit Stone +2
- Balacs Lunchbox +2
- Makgeolli +1
- Fruit Wine +1
- Citron Juice +1
- Honeycomb Cookie +1
- Aloe Yogurt +1
- Balenos Meal +2
- Perfume of Swiftness +5
- Fisher’s Elixir +2-3
- Paste Bait +2
Auto-fishing Timer
To decrease the wait time between First Bite and collection of catch during AFK fishing, use items that decrease Auto-fishing Time. The base wait time is 3 minutes.
The maximum percentage allowed for Auto-fishing Time reduction is capped at 66.7%. This shaves off about 2 minutes of wait time from First Bite to Collection.
The easiest ways to permanently decrease your Auto-Fishing timer are:
- The +10 Balenos Fishing Rod (25% reduction).
- Tier 4 AFK fishing pet (30% reduction) More on AFK fishing pets below.
- The Nibbles lightstone combo (15% reduction).
There are also temporary items that decrease Auto-fishing Time like Crio’s Sturdy Fishing Chair (5%) and consumables like Balacs Lunchbox.
Permanent Auto-Fishing Buffs
- *Balenos Fishing Rod 10-25%
- Auto-fishing reduction Pet 20-30%
- Nibbles Lightstone Combo 15%
*Item’s Durability will need to be repaired.
Temporary Auto-Fishing Buffs
- Crio’s Sturdy Fishing Chair 5%
- Balacs Lunchbox 7%
- Eilton Sandwich 7%
- Special Arehaza Meal 5%
- Coconut Cocktail 5%
Recommended AFK Fishing Setup & Gear
Maximum inventory (192) goes a long way towards increasing your AFK Fishing profits as fresh fish and relic shards do not stack. You can also use Shim Cheong’s Miraculous Fishing Tank to increase your fishing inventory.
Try to find Abundant Fishing Resources for a faster first bite whenever possible.
Recommended Fishing Gear for Permanent Buffs:
- First Bite Timer reduction: +5 Fishing Ability
- Rank 3 Guild skill (+3 Fishing Ability)
- Enhanced Silver Embroiderd or Life Mastery Fisher’s Clothes (+2 or more Fishing Ability)
- If needed: Pet skill (+1 Fishing Ability)
- Auto-fishing Time reduction (capped at 66.7%)
- +10 Balenos Fishing Rod (25%)
- Applying an Item Brand Spell Stone to rod will reduce durability consumpation by 50%. See below for more info on Brand stones.
- Tier 4 Auto-fishing Time Reduction Pet (30%):
- Only 1 pet with Auto-fishing Reduction Special Skill: Auto-fishing Time Reduction does not stack with multiple pets so use the highest tiered pet. See below for more info on pets.
- Nibbles Artifact Lightstone Combo (15%)
- +10 Balenos Fishing Rod (25%)
AFK Fishing Pets
All Pets have an RNG chance to gain a skill that increases Fishing Ability +1 which decreases the time from cast to first bite. Certain pets can also have a special ability that decreases Auto-fishing Time.
Pets with Auto-fishing Time Reduction buffs can help reduce the time it takes from first bite to catch collection.
The Auto-fishing Time reduction ability on pets does not stack. When more than 1 pet with Auto-fishing Time reduction is summoned, the highest tiered pet’s time reduction will be in effect.
Pet Tiers & Auto-fishing Time Reduction
- T1 and T2 = 20% Auto-fishing Time Reduction
- T3 = 25% Auto-fishing Time Reduction
- T4 = 20% Auto-fishing Time Reduction
- T4 = 30% Auto-fishing Time Reduction
Best AFK Fishing Pet
Arguably, the best fishing pet is the Newborn Dragon, in which you can pick the skills you want, which would include a Talent of Durability Reduction Resistance and a Special Skill of Auto-fishing Time Reduced. This pet is called Newborn Crimson Dragon or Newborn Golden Dragon. It’s a Rare pet type and available periodically during certain Events.
Setting Up Your Pet
Be sure your pet’s Special skill, Auto-Fishing Time Reduction, is turned on (orange star icon). Pets need to be fed to use their Special skill. If you plan on AFK fishing for a while, be sure its Hunger Level is topped up to 100%. When AFK fishing, set your pet’s activity level to Cautious (green sitting cat icon) so its Hunger Level decreases slower.
Premium Auto-Fishing Pets: Marmot & Otter
The Marmot and Otter pets are easy to obtain from the Pearl Shop and are available all year around. Normal price is 1100 Pearls. Other Limited Fishing pets aren’t as easy to obtain because they require an Event or rare drop.
| PREMIUM PET TYPE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pet Name | Special Ability | Talent | Sellable | Acquired By |
Marmot |
Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30% | Life Skill EXP +1-4% | YES | 1100 Pearls |
Otter |
Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30% | Life Skill EXP +1-4% | YES | 1100 Pearls |
Rare Auto-Fishing Pets: Newborn Dragon, Polar Bear, Penguin
| LIMITED PET TYPE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pet Name | Special Ability | Talent | Sellable | Acquired By |
| Newborn Crimson Dragon Newborn Golden Dragon  |
Buyer’s Choice: Resistant to Desert Diseases, Auto-fishing Time Reduced Reduced 20%-30%, Hostility Detection |
Buyer’s Choice: Life Skill EXP +1-4% Combat Skill EXP +1-4% Knowledge and Higher-grade Knowledge Gain Chance Increase Durability Reduction Resistance |
NO | 1650 Pearls |
Polar Bear |
Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30% |
Weight Limit Increase: Tier 1: 20LT Tier 2: 30LT Tier 3: 40LT Tier 4: 50LT |
NO |
1100 Pearls for Limited Time
|
Penguin |
Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30% | Life Skill EXP +1-4% | NO | Season Pet Choice |
Bos’n Jack |
Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30% |
Big Ship Inventory Weight: Tier 1: 50LT Tier 2: 100LT Tier 3: 150LT Tier 4: 200LT |
NO | 1100 Pearls for Limited Time |
Special Auto-Fishing Pet: Young Crimson Dragon
Young Crimson Dragon can only be obtained via a lucky Market Pre-order or a very rare drop. He is not the same as other dragons, although his name is very similar to the Newborn Crimson Dragon.
| SPECIAL PET TYPE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pet Name | Special Ability | Talent | Sellable | Acquired By | Notes |
Young Crimson Dragon |
One Random: Heat Stroke/Hypothermia Resistance, or Auto-fishing Time Reduced 20%-30%, or Taunt Monster, or Hostility Detection, or Finds Rare Monsters |
HP Buff: Tier 1: 25hp Tier 2: 50HP Tier 3: 75hp Tier 4: 100hp |
YES | Defeat Garmoth, Obtain rare Garmoth’s Horn. Exchange horn to Gerson in Duvencrune (Gerson is near Trade Manager Tikara) | Currently, it can only be Exchanged with another Young Crimson Dragon. Can only have 1 Dragon summoned at once. |
Balenos Fishing Rod Crafting
The base Balenos Fishing Rod can be crafted in a Tool Workshop that is level 3+. There are 3 of them in Heidel alone. Balenos Fishing Rod can be enhanced up to +10, increasing its Durability to a max of 100 and Auto-fishing Time reduction to a max of 25%.
| Icon | Fishing Rod | Effects | Durability | Repair | Obtained By | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Balenos Fishing Rod | Auto-fishing Time -10% (Auto-fishing Time -25% at +10) |
50 (100 at +10) |
YES | Tool Workshop Level 3 |
1 Ash Timber 2 Steel 5 Pure Copper Crystal 9 Monk’s Branch 15 Black Stone Powder |
Balenos Fishing Rod Enhancement
Balenos Fishing Rod can be upgraded with Black Stones to a maximum of +10. Enhancement decreases Auto-fishing Time and increases max Durability.
Each enhancement attempt from +1 to +10 requires 1 Black Stone.
After +7, it’s possible for the Balenos Fishing Rod to downgrade on Enhancement failure. Cron stones can’t be used to safeguard the rod from downgrading on failed enhancements. In other words, your +7 fishing pole has a chance to drop to +6 on Enhancement failure.
Most players Force Enhance +8 to +10. See table below for details on force enhancing the Balenos Fishing Rod.
| Level | Blackstones Required to Force Enhance |
Auto-fishing Time | Minutes to Bite |
Durability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0 | 0 | -10% (-18 seconds) | 2:42 | 50 |
| +1 | 2 | -11% (-19.8 seconds) | 2:40 | 55 |
| +2 | 3 | -12% (-21.6 seconds) | 2:38 | 60 |
| +3 | 4 | -13% (-23.4 seconds) | 2:37 | 65 |
| +4 | 5 | -14% (-25.2 seconds) | 2:35 | 70 |
| +5 | 9 | -15% (-27 seconds) | 2:33 | 75 |
| +6 | 17 | -16% (-28.8 seconds) | 2:31 | 80 |
| +7 | 35 | -18% (-32.4 seconds) | 2:28 | 85 |
| +8 | 70 | -20% (-36 seconds) | 2:24 | 90 |
| +9 | 90 | -22% (-39.6 seconds) | 2:20 | 95 |
| +10 | 120 | -25% (- 45 seconds) | 2:15 | 100 |
| TOTAL | 355 |
Item Brand Spell Stone for Balenos Fishing Rod & Fishing Floats
An Item Brand Spell Stone can be used on the Balenos Fishing Rod (and floats). This will reduce the Durability Consumption of the rod by 50% so you can AFK fish for longer without repairing. This $4 item, effectively doubles your fishing time. It also reduces the cost to repair a Balenos Fishing Rod by 33%.
Item Brand Spell Stone
- Durability Consumption:Â -50% (Double your AFK fishing ability.)
- Repair Cost:Â -33% (Saves a couple thousand silver each repair.)
- Pearl Cost x1:Â 400 Pearls ($4)
- Pearl Cost x6:Â 2000 Pearls (Buy 5 and get one free. Saves 400 Pearls)
Enhancement attempts do not affect the branding on the rod.
WARNING! Branding will be removed if you place a branded rod into the Warehouse for storage or selling on Marketplace.
Hello, there’s an error in the Auto-fishing Timer part, it says max reduction is 100%. While this is capped at 66.7%
This 100% is repeated a few times throughout the guide.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I updated the guide.
“NO distance bonus for selling fish to Imperial Fishing NPCs.” catch a blue fish in velia, check the price on the imperial trader (fishing) then go to glish and do the same.
Hello there! My Imperial Fishing Delivery NPC always says 250% price increase, as long as it is not expired and is still 100% fresh. Typical distance bonus you see for trade items is absent. Perhaps your fish had lost some value from being somewhat expired?