Fisch: How to Unlock the Plaguereaver Rod Mastery and Plaguecleaver Skin

The Plaguereaver now has a full Rod Mastery track, added in Version 1.97.0. Finishing it stacks a permanent stat boost onto the rod and hands you the legendary Plaguecleaver skin, which turns the rod into a large demon sword with a purple aura, a loud scream sound on each catch, and eerie music while it is held.

Quick answer: Reach level 850, equip the Plaguereaver, then complete its three mastery quests. The hardest is perfect-catching a Toxic Guardian in the Living Garden. Clearing all three grants the Plaguecleaver skin plus a permanent +25% Lure Speed, +2 Disturbance, and +50 Durability.

Plaguereaver mastery rewards

The mastery has three quests. Each pays out on its own, and completing all three awards the Plaguecleaver skin as the grand reward. The stat buff that matters most for everyday fishing comes from the Toxic Guardian quest.

Quest	Objective	Reward
Master of the Garden	Perfect Catch 1 Toxic Guardian with the Plaguereaver	+25% Lure Speed, +2 Disturbance, +50 Durability
The Plague	Catch 400 Plagued fish with the Plaguereaver	Plague Doctor title
A Great Disturbance	Contribute 25,000 Disturbance with the Plaguereaver	Wings of Wrath
Grand reward	Complete all three quests	Plaguecleaver skin

Requirements before you start

The mastery track unlocks at level 850, which is higher than the level 650 needed to obtain the rod itself. You also need the Plaguereaver equipped for every objective, since all three quests only count progress made with that rod.

Two of the quests are simple grinds. The Plaguereaver has a 15% chance to apply the Plagued mutation, so 400 Plagued catches accumulate on their own while you fish normally, and its +5 Disturbance builds toward the 25,000 Disturbance goal over time. The gate is the Toxic Guardian.

Spawn and perfect-catch the Toxic Guardian

The Toxic Guardian is a Secret fish in the Living Garden. It spawns as a transformed Flower Guardian, and the spawn window is tied to a Witherbloom you set up first. Version 1.97.0 widened that window, so the Guardian can now appear up to 2 minutes after the Witherbloom despawns.

Attribute	Detail
Rarity	Secret
Location	Living Garden
Preferred weather	Rain
Preferred cycle	Night
Preferred season	Autumn

Keep the Plaguereaver equipped and catch a Rotbloom. The rod’s +5 Rotbloom hunt focus pulls it in faster once a hunt is active.

Use a Blight Idol on the Rotbloom to transform it into a Witherbloom. This starts the timer you need for the next stage.

Teleport to the Living Garden with a Traveler’s Whistle. Move quickly, because the spawn window closes 2 minutes after the Witherbloom despawns.

Open flowers in the Living Garden inside that 2-minute window to spawn a Flower Guardian, which then turns into the Toxic Guardian.

If flowers fail to produce a Flower Guardian, equip the Bloombspire and fish the area instead. The Slumbering Elegance variant gives +20 Flower Guardian hunt focus, the highest boost for forcing the spawn.

Once the Toxic Guardian appears, switch back to the Plaguereaver to hook it, since only Plaguereaver catches count for the quest.

Land a Perfect Catch with no missed inputs on the minigame bar. Running the Silly Seal companion makes holding a perfect run easier.

Note: this is a Secret fish, so luck bonuses do not affect the odds. The spawn is the bottleneck, not luck, which is why the widened 2-minute window matters.

Confirming the buff and skin

Each quest pays out the moment you claim it in the Rod Mastery menu. Master of the Garden applies the +25% Lure Speed, +2 Disturbance, and +50 Durability directly to the Plaguereaver’s stats, so you can verify it by checking the rod’s stat sheet after claiming.

When all three quests are done, the Plaguecleaver skin unlocks under the rod’s skins. Equip it to swap the model to the demon-sword look with the scream catch sound and the ambient music. If a quest will not complete, it is almost always because progress was made with a different rod, or because the Toxic Guardian catch was not a Perfect Catch.