It may have started as a smaller indie game at first, but Stardew Valley always had a lot to offer in terms of content. It's not hard to play for hours on end and lose track of time when playing the game.

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Although it's mostly focused on farming, there's much, much more that you can do. You can improve your character's various skills, complete all sorts of collections, and earn money in many different ways. In this guide, we'll talk about crab pots in particular, as there's more than meets the eye when it comes to these ingenious contraptions.

How To Unlock And Craft Crab Pots

Crab pots are a great alternative to fishing. As soon as you get the fish rod that can catch your first couple of fish, you'll understand how difficult the fishing mechanic is. However, you won't start the game with the ability to craft crab pots right away, you'll have to unlock them as you progress.

The crab pot recipe is unlocked in Stardew Valley once you reach level three of the Fishing skill. Catching fishing is the most lucrative and fastest method of earning money early on in the game so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting there after a few in-game days or so.

To craft a crab pot you will need to collect:

• Three iron bars
• 40 wood

or, if you have the Trapper profession (Fishing skill level five):

• Two copper bars
• 25 wood

Having the Trapper profession significantly reduces how expensive crab pots normally tend to be. Alternatively, if you're doing well financially, after unlocking crab pots you can also get them from Willy's Fish shop for 1,500g.

Where To Place Crab Pots And What They Can Catch

Once you've got a few crab pots, it's time to actually place them down and start catching some fish! You can place crab pots in all bodies of water available in Stardew Valley, except fountains. This means that you can put crab pots down in the ocean, ponds, lakes, sewers, and rivers.

Technically, you can place crab pots in the mine pools. However, they will disappear after you've left the level. And, since you can only harvest crab pots the following day, you would never be able to catch anything with them.

It's worth testing all types of bodies of water; different placement locations will result in catching different fish, of course. Trash is the only exception here — you can find the same kind of trash anywhere. Here is everything you can catch with a crab pot:

Regardless of what you catch in a crab pot, it'll always increase your experience points in the Fishing skill by five - yes, even if you simply collect some trash from the crab pot.

Unfortunately, everything that's caught with the crab pot will only be of normal quality, it will never be any higher. But, crab pots tend to be a sort of passive income for most players; once you've crafted your crab pots and left them in a specific location, you will harvest them from time to time and anything that's caught in them will only count as profit instead of a loss. Even if you spent 1,500g on the crab pots, they'll eventually pay for themselves.

After you've placed them in the water, always wait at least a day to check your crab pots. Items will only spawn in them overnight.

Bait And Crab Pot Professions

Without any Fishing skill profession, crab pots will only catch fish if they've been filled with bait. Otherwise, they can sit out in the water for days on end without catching anything. And, after looting the crab pot, you will have to refill its bait. You don't need any special type of bait for crab pots. Unlike fishing, it wouldn't make any difference even if you used magic bait, or wild bait, for example.

To not unnecessarily waste any materials or money, be sure to use the default bait that you receive once you get to Fishing skill level two. You can craft bait with one Bug Meat - we've even got you covered on how you can farm this strange crafting ingredient.

There's even a way not need to use any bait at all. As you increase your level in certain skills in Stardew Valley, you can unlock professions. And, as you increase your Fishing skill and reach level ten, you can choose to unlock the Luremaster profession.

The Luremaster profession grants the player the ability to never have to put bait in their crab pots in order to catch something with them. This is a huge time saver. It makes it so you won't have to craft or buy any more bait. This means you won't have to constantly replace the bait in the crab pots every time you use them.

Alternatively, you can pick the Mariner profession when you reach level ten. The Mariner profession makes it so crab pots will never catch trash again.

To gain access to the Luremaster and the Mariner professions, you will have to have chosen the Trapper profession when reaching level five of the Fishing skill. The other option is the Fisher profession, which grants access to the Angler and Pirate professions instead.

Both professions are useful in their own way, it is up to you to decide which one suits your needs best.

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