Quality rolls
Every catch's quality is a walk down its bait's chance ladder: the roll can only step up, never down, so a bait's top rung decides its ceiling. Worms stop at Normal; the Gilded Worm reaches Alpha on 12% of quality rolls, before the treasure-chest override.
How the roll works
The game walks the bait's ladder rung by rung, and every rung gets its own roll: starting at Normal, each higher quality flips a coin with that rung's chance, and a pass overwrites the fish. Later rungs roll no matter what happened below, so the catch ends at the highest rung that passed. Every rung's chance folds into the outcome, meaning the published per-quality odds are already multiplied through: a Glistening chance of 8.42% on the Gilded Worm means 8.42% of quality rolls finish at Glistening. Missing Radiant does not prevent Alpha, because each rung rolls independently.
Qualities do two jobs at once. They multiply sell value (Normal ×1 up to Alpha ×15) and they raise the fight: difficulty scales with the same ladder, from ×1 to ×5.5.
Per-bait odds
| Bait | Normal | Shining | Glistening | Opulent | Radiant | Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worms | 100.00% | – | – | – | – | – |
| Crickets | 95.00% | 5.00% | – | – | – | – |
| Leeches | 80.75% | 14.25% | 5.00% | – | – | – |
| Minnows | 35.63% | 35.63% | 23.75% | 5.00% | – | – |
| Squid | 8.88% | 35.53% | 36.34% | 14.25% | 5.00% | – |
| Nautiluses | 0.16% | 7.86% | 24.05% | 39.19% | 23.75% | 5.00% |
| Gilded Worm | 0.01% | 1.47% | 8.42% | 29.70% | 48.40% | 12.00% |
Treasure chests sit outside this table entirely: they are always Normal, whatever bait hooked them.
Ripples bend the odds
Casting into a ripple multiplies each rung of the bait's ladder by ×1.5 before the walk runs, capped at certainty. For the top end that means the Gilded Worm's Alpha share rises from 12% in open water to 18% under a ripple.
| Bait under a ripple | Normal | Shining | Glistening | Opulent | Radiant | Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worms | 100.00% | – | – | – | – | – |
| Crickets | 92.50% | 7.50% | – | – | – | – |
| Leeches | 71.69% | 20.81% | 7.50% | – | – | – |
| Minnows | 14.45% | 43.36% | 34.69% | 7.50% | – | – |
| Squid | – | 23.30% | 48.39% | 20.81% | 7.50% | – |
| Nautiluses | – | – | 10.12% | 47.70% | 34.69% | 7.50% |
| Gilded Worm | – | – | – | 14.35% | 67.65% | 18.00% |
What do qualities do?
Each quality step multiplies sell value and raises fight difficulty: normal ×1 → shining ×1.8 → glistening ×4 → opulent ×6 → radiant ×10 → alpha ×15.How do I get Alpha fish?
Fish with a Gilded Worm: 12% of its catches are Alpha, and fishing a ripple with one pushes that to 18%, before the treasure-chest override.The collector grind
Journal completion at each quality gates the collector rods. Traveler's Rod asks for one catch of everything in any quality, and each successive Collector rod demands the whole journal at that quality:
Collector's, Shining, Glistening, Opulent, Radiant, Alpha
The six "Journal Full!" achievements mark those same thresholds, and the journal tracker shows exactly which fish still stand between you and each rod.