How to get fishing bait in Terraria

If you are looking to do some fishing in Terraria, you are going to need bait. Any fishing attempt without bait in your inventory will result in nothing being caught.

Fishing can be a handy mechanic in the game for acquiring items that will aid you in your survival journey. Here are ways to get bait.

How to get fishing bait in Terraria

Bait items can only be consumed if they are reeled in with a catch on the hook. There is also a chance with specific bait not to be consumed once reeled in with a catch. Any bait with a bait power of more than 5 percent will take multiple catches to be consumed. If you have various forms of bait, whichever is placed to the top left-most of your inventory will be used first. They can also be placed in ammunition bags but will be used last after whatever bait remains in your inventory slots.

The most common form of bait is critters. This includes insects, snails, and worms (but not the truffle worm), and all must be caught with either the bug net or golden bug net. There are currently 42 different kinds of critters in total, but only the 23 insect, snail, and worm variants can be used as bait. You can catch them in specific environments during specific times of the day that allow for them to spawn naturally. The list of critters used for bait (along with their bait power) is below.

• Black Scorpion – 15%
• Buggy – 40%
• Julia Butterfly – 25%
• Monarch Butterfly – 5%
• Purple Emperor Butterfly – 35%
• Red Admiral Butterfly – 30%
• Sulphur Butterfly – 10%
• Tree Nymph Butterfly – 50%
• Ulysses Butterfly – 20%
• Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly – 15%
• Enchanted Nightcrawler – 35%
• Firefly – 20%
• Glowing Snail – 15%
• Gold Butterfly – 50%
• Gold Grasshopper – 50%
• Gold Worm – 50%
• Grasshopper – 10%
• Grubby – 15%
• Lightning Bug – 35%
• Scorpion – 10%
• Sluggy – 25%
• Snail – 10%
• Worm – 25%

It is important to note that critters spawned by statues cannot be caught by a bug net and used for bait. They will despawn the moment you try to catch them.

Blue, green, and pink jellyfish are separate from the enemy jellyfish and can only be caught from fishing. Blue jellyfish can only be caught in underground or cavern bodies of water. Green jellyfish are in the same areas of blue ones but are only available in Hardcore. When Hardcore is active, there is a 50 percent chance when catching a jellyfish in these areas that it will be blue or green. Pink jellyfish can be caught in ocean biomes. All three have a bait power of 20 percent. The chance to catch a jellyfish bait item is 1 in 500 with 50 percent fishing power, and 1 in 250 with 100 percent fishing power.

Finally, apprentice, journeyman, and master bait are rewards for completing quests from the Angler NPC. There is also a chance to find them while fishing and grabbing a crate. Apprentice bat has 15 percent power, journeyman has 30 percent, and master bait has 50 percent bait power.