The Maelstrom Rod is a limited, event-exclusive fishing rod available during the Fischmas 2025 event in Fisch. It is a late-game rod and requires completing a full questline before it can be purchased. While it does not have the highest base stats in the game, its special ability and mutation potential make it a sought-after rod for advanced players. Here’s how you can get it.
How to Unlock the Maelstrom Rod in Fisch
Step 1: Complete Santa’s Questline in Northstar Village
Before anything else, you must complete Santa’s main questline located in Northstar Village. This questline is part of the Fischmas event and unlocks access to key items required later.
During these quests, you will need to obtain:
- Essence of Winter
- Essence of Starfrost
- Everfrost Key
The essences are acquired through fishing during the event, while the Everfrost Key is granted after progressing through Santa’s objectives. Make sure all quest steps are fully completed before moving on.
Step 2: Wait for a Frost Moon Event
After obtaining the required essences and key, you must wait for a Frost Moon. This is a special weather event that only appears during Fischmas and is crucial for unlocking the Maelstrom Rod area. You can use the Frost Moon Totem to trigger the event manually.
Step 3: Activate All Three Levers
When the Frost Moon is active, three hidden levers around Northstar Village become usable. You must activate all of them.
The levers are located:
- On top of a wall at the edge of the village
- Near the Gingerbread House
- Behind a greenhouse
You can pull them in any order, but all three must be activated before continuing. Before moving forward, double-check that all levers were pulled correctly.
Step 4: Enter the Hidden Hatch
Once the levers are activated, a hidden hatch opens in the center of the area. Enter it to proceed.
Inside, you must:
- Insert the Essence of Winter and Essence of Starfrost into the serpent decoration near the door
- Use the Everfrost Key to unlock the next section
Step 5: Catch the Cryoshock Serpent
Beyond the locked door, you will encounter the Cryoshock Serpent. You must catch it to get to the last step.
Afterward, you will be placed into an icy arena that features breakable platforms and parkour mechanics. This section requires careful movement and timing. Failing can result in death, forcing you to repeat earlier steps. Be careful and avoid rushing through unstable platforms.
Since this won’t be too easy, here’s a video guide:
Step 6: Purchase the Maelstrom Rod
After completing the parkour section, you will gain access to the Maelstrom Rod vendor.
The rod costs 3,250,000 C$, so make sure you have enough currency before starting this process. Once purchased, the Maelstrom Rod is permanently unlocked on your account.
Keep in mind that this rod is only available during the Fischmas event, so missing the event means waiting until it returns in the future.
What Makes the Maelstrom Rod Special?
Here are the stats:
- Lure Speed: 80%
- Luck: 85%
- Control: 0.15
- Resilience: 35%
- Max Kg: infkg
As you can see, they aren’t amazing; however, what makes the Maelstrom Rod special is its unique charge-based passive ability.
When fishing, you can hold input to build charge, which boosts your progress bar and can temporarily freeze the fish when released at the right moment. In addition, the rod has a chance to apply the Frostbitten mutation, which significantly increases the value of fish. Here are the details:
- 30% chance to apply the Frostbitten mutation, which grants a 9x value multiplier
- Progress speed is reduced by 10%
- While fishing, a visible Charge Meter appears above the fishing bar:
- Holding an input causes the Charge Meter to build up randomly
- Once the meter reaches 100%, the charge begins to drain
- When the charge drops back to 0%, the buildup cycle starts again
- Releasing the input instantly resets the Charge Meter
- If the input is released while the Charge Meter is above 80% and the fish is positioned inside the fishing bar:
- Progress is increased by 15%
- There is a 25% chance of freezing the fish’s movement for 2 to 4 seconds
- This freezing effect overrides any freeze effects applied through enchantments.
Based on these stats, you can decide whether you would like to complete this process for the Maelstrom Rod in Fisch, get it simply as a collectible or skip it entirely.
