If you’ve spent any amount of time wandering Palworld’s lush shores or murky swamps, you’ve probably stumbled across fishing spots dotted along the water’s edge. These spots are your ticket to rare fish, valuable cooking ingredients, and even hidden pal souls, but you can’t use them if you don’t know how to get bait in Palworld first. I’ve wasted hours running around trying to find this elusive item early in my playthrough, so I’ve put together every tested method to get bait fast, no matter what stage of the game you’re in. You don’t need endgame gear or rare pals to stock up, and a little bait goes a long way if you use it wisely.
How to Craft Bait in Palworld (Most Reliable Method)
Crafting is by far the most consistent way to get bait, especially if you’re still in the early game and don’t have access to high-tier loot spots or farming pals. You’ll unlock the bait recipe as soon as you hit level 12, so you can start making it not long after you set up your first real base. All you need is a Primitive Workbench to craft it, no fancy stations required.
The recipe for one stack of 10 bait only requires two common ingredients: 1 Wheat and 1 Red Berry. Both of these are super easy to farm even with zero pals helping you. Wheat grows wild in most grassy biomes, and you can plant wheat seeds on any farm plot once you collect them from wild wheat patches. Red berries are even easier to find, growing on small bushes all across the starting island, and you can stock up hundreds in a single 10-minute foraging run.
That means you can easily make 50 to 100 bait in less than 15 minutes if you have a small farm set up. I recommend keeping at least 30 bait in your inventory at all times once you unlock the recipe, because you never know when you’ll run across a rare golden fishing spot that gives extra rare loot. The only downside to crafting bait is that it uses up wheat you might otherwise save for making bread or feeding grass-eating pals, so balance your stock based on your current needs.
Alternative Ways to Farm Bait Without Crafting
If you don’t want to use up your foraged resources on bait, there are plenty of other ways to get it for free as you explore the world. None of these methods are as consistent as crafting, but they’re a great way to stock up while you’re doing other tasks, and you won’t have to spend any of your stored materials to get them. I usually pick up extra bait whenever I’m doing any of these activities, so I rarely have to craft it unless I’m prepping for a long fishing session.
- Loot from chests and breakable crates: Common chests in starting areas, abandoned mines, and small bandit camps have a 30% to 40% chance to drop 5 to 15 bait per chest. I’ve found entire stacks of 20 bait in random crates near fishing spots, so always smash every crate you see when you’re near water.
- Drop from water-type pals: Low-level water pals like Pengullet, Fuack, and Surfent have a small chance to drop bait when you catch or defeat them. You don’t have to go out of your way to farm them, but if you’re already catching water pals for your base, you’ll build up a small stock of bait without trying.
- Reward from side quests: Many early-game NPC quests ask you to catch a specific pal or deliver a small number of resources, and bait is a common reward for these low-effort tasks. I once got 50 bait just for delivering 10 berries to a wandering merchant, which saved me hours of crafting time.
You can also buy bait from wandering merchants that spawn near coastal areas, but I don’t recommend it unless you’re desperate. Most merchants charge 10 gold per bait, which is way overpriced when you can make it for almost free with common foraged items. It’s only worth buying if you just found a golden fishing spot and don’t have any bait on you, otherwise save your gold for rare schematics or pal souls.
How to Automate Bait Farming for Endgame Play
Once you’re past the early game and have a stable base with working farm plots and suitable working pals, you can automate bait production entirely so you never run out again. This is perfect if you like to fish for rare resources to make high-tier food, or if you run a shop base and sell fish for extra gold. You won’t have to lift a finger once you set this system up, and you’ll get a constant supply of bait delivered straight to your storage boxes.
First, set up at least 10 farm plots for wheat, and assign a planting-specialized pal like Lamball or Lifmunk to tend to them. These pals will plant seeds, water the crops, and harvest fully grown wheat automatically, so you’ll have a constant supply of wheat without foraging. Next, set up a few berry farms near your workbenches, or assign a foraging pal to collect red berries from wild bushes around your base. You’ll get more berries than you know what to do with in just a few days of in-game time.
Finally, assign a pal with the crafting trait to your Primitive Workbench, and set your crafting queue to make bait whenever you have extra wheat and berries. The pal will automatically make as much bait as you have materials for, and drop the finished stacks in your nearest storage box. I have this system running on my main base, and I usually come back from exploring with 100+ extra bait waiting for me, no work required. The only thing you need to watch out for is making sure you save enough wheat for other recipes, so I recommend setting a limit of 100 bait in storage at any time to avoid wasting crops.
Smart Tips to Use Bait Efficiently in Palworld
Getting bait is only half the battle, because you can waste a lot of it if you don’t use it strategically. I’ve burned through 50 bait in a single session just fishing random spots, and I ended up with almost nothing useful to show for it, so I’ve learned a few tricks to get the most value out of every bait you use. You don’t have to hoard bait, but you’ll get way better rewards if you use it intentionally.
First, always save at least a few bait for golden fishing spots. These rare spots have a glowing gold aura around them, and they give you 3x the loot of regular spots, plus a high chance to get rare fish, pal eggs, and even ancient tech parts. I once got a legendary pal egg from a golden spot near the volcanic biome, so it’s always worth saving a few bait just in case you run into one when you’re exploring.
Another tip is to only fish when you have a pal with the fishing trait in your party. Pals like Pengullet and Azurobe will cut the time you spend fishing in half, and they have a higher chance to get rare loot from each cast. That means you’ll use less bait overall to get the same amount of resources, so your stock will last way longer. You don’t need a high-level fishing pal either, even a level 5 Pengullet will make a huge difference in your fishing speed.
Finally, don’t use bait for regular small fish unless you need them for a specific recipe. Most regular fish give the same amount of food as berries or cooked meat, so you’re wasting bait if you’re just fishing for basic food. Save your bait for rare fish that you can’t get any other way, or for golden spots that give you extra rewards. I only fish regular spots if I have way more bait than I know what to do with, otherwise I save it for higher-value uses.
Whether you’re a new player just figuring out the basics or an endgame player with a fully automated base, knowing how to get bait in Palworld opens up a ton of extra content and resources you can’t get anywhere else. You don’t need fancy gear or rare pals to stock up, even a few minutes of foraging and crafting will give you enough bait to catch rare fish, unlock new recipes, and find hidden loot. The best part is that once you set up a simple farming system, you’ll never have to worry about running out of bait again, so you can focus on exploring the world and catching new pals.