Fishing Rod Trinket Guide

Appearance

Fishing Rod appears as a regular fishing rod with an orange handle featuring black stripes, resembling Finn's life jacket color scheme. A light blue toy fish is attached where the hook should be. The design connects it visually to its unlock source, Twisted Finn, though the color palette does not perfectly match Finn's own tones.

Description

Fishing Rod is one of the usable Trinkets found in Dandy's World and is a Twisted Trinket. It was added on August 14, 2024, alongside Blushy Bat, Savory Charm, Sweet Charm, and Vanity Mirror. It is obtained by achieving 100% Research on Twisted Finn.

When equipped, Fishing Rod grants the player 3 random Items from the Common to Rare tiers at the very start of a run. Dandy's Shop exclusive Items are not included in the pool. The effect fires only once and does not repeat on subsequent Floors, meaning the Trinket slot is effectively empty for the remainder of the game.

Strategies

Fishing Rod is generally not worth using unless you are going on a shorter run or targeting a specific Item-use Mastery Quest. The core problem is that its ability fires once at the start of the game, just like Fancy Purse, and then provides zero value for every remaining Floor. You are permanently giving up a Trinket slot in exchange for three early Items that may or may not be useful.

The item pool is also very narrow. Only Common to Rare tier Items can appear, and Dandy's Shop exclusives are excluded entirely. That means you cannot receive high-impact Items like Health Kits, and the best realistic pull is a Bandage. While a Bandage can help with Cosmo, Looey, and Poppy's Mastery Quests for using or activating their Abilities, that is the ceiling of what Fishing Rod offers. Considering you can buy Bandages and Health Kits pre-game for a small Ichor fee, the Trinket slot is almost always better spent on something that provides value across the entire run.

Another overlooked downside is that the three Items occupy your inventory slots immediately. On early Floors, better Items often appear on the ground or in Dandy's Shop, but your inventory may already be full with lower-quality Fishing Rod pulls, forcing you to drop or manage Items you did not choose. This inventory pressure is the opposite of what most players want at the start of a run.

Best Users and Niche Cases

Bassie is the one Toon that gets slightly more from Fishing Rod than anyone else. Her Passive Ability grants an extra inventory slot, so she receives four Items instead of three when this Trinket is equipped. She can then distribute surplus Items to teammates, which is marginally helpful in coordinated lobbies. However, she is still more likely to find better Items on the floor or in Dandy's Shop as the run progresses, so the long-term cost of losing a Trinket slot remains.

Outside of Bassie, the only practical reasons to equip Fishing Rod are short runs where you plan to leave after a few Floors, specific Item-use Mastery grinds where starting with Bandages or Bricks saves time, or self-imposed challenge runs. For standard progression, almost any other Trinket — including Festive Lights, Megaphone, or Fancy Purse — will return more total value across a full game.

Trivia

Fishing Rod has several notable connections to other Trinkets and lore details from Dandy's World.

• Fishing Rod is similar to Crayon Set, the Trinket earned from 100% Research on Twisted Scraps. Prior to Fishing Rod's release, Crayon Set functioned almost the same, except it only gave the user a head-start of 3 Uncommon Items rather than Common to Rare.
• When playing as Bassie with Fishing Rod equipped, you will be granted four Items to your inventory instead of three, due to her Passive Ability that gives her an extra inventory slot.
• Fishing Rod is the third Trinket to directly give Items to its user, with the first being Crayon Set, the second being Pop Pack, and the fourth being Megaphone.
• The toy fish on Fishing Rod's hook is not Barnaby Wilikers, Finn's toy fish. The fish in the Trinket's render is light blue, while Barnaby is purple in default.
• Not counting Trinkets that appear in their Toons' models (Blue Bandana, Feather Duster, Magnifying Glass, and Pink Bow), Fishing Rod is the second Trinket that does not match its respective Toon's color scheme, after Spare Bulb and Bone. Lucky Coin, Festive Lights, and Moon Pack Heirloom also share this trait.
• One could argue the light blue toy fish on Fishing Rod loosely connects to Finn's palette, similar to how Lucky Coin's yellow relates to Gigi's star or Festive Lights' red relates to Rudie's nose.

FAQ