Fisch hides some of its strangest equipment behind equally strange NPCs, and the Dave Rod is one of them. Instead of buying it or crafting it, you earn it by humouring a rock-obsessed character perched on top of The Arch.
The process is simple on paper: find Dave, complete three rock-themed quests, and collect your reward. The detail that matters is what those quests actually ask you to bring and how Dave’s dialogue changes as you progress.
Where Dave is in Fisch
Dave is a dedicated quest NPC located at The Arch, a large rock formation that sits between the Statue of Sovereignty and Mushgrove Swamp. The structure is shaped like an upside-down “U” with a single tree on it, and Dave stands on the very top.
Reaching him is a two-step job. First, sail out from Moosewood Village into the Ocean and head toward Mushgrove Swamp, passing the Statue of Sovereignty on your way. When you see the arch-shaped rock with the tree, dock on the side that faces the swamp; that slope gives you the easiest climb.
From there, you can walk and jump up the slanted rock faces with a bit of light parkour until you reach the summit. Dave is hard to miss: he is built out of rocks, with a carved smile and a small cairn balanced on his head. Interact with him to trigger the first conversation and start the questline.
Overview of the Dave Rod questline
Dave’s entire quest chain is built around one theme: rocks. He speaks in short, all-caps bursts and repeats himself often, but underneath the joke, there is a clear structure:
- The first quest asks you to present a single Boulder.
- The second quest asks for a bulk delivery of 250 Rocks.
- The third quest asks for a final, “special” Rock.
Finishing all three unlocks the Dave Rod and grants chunks of XP along the way. The quest names are not displayed in Dave’s dialogue, but their objectives are visible in the quest list as “Show the Boulder,” “Find the Rocks,” and “Find the Final Rock.”
Quest 1: Show the Boulder to Dave
Step 1: Climb to the top of The Arch and interact with Dave. He opens with “ME WANT ROCK” and immediately steers the conversation toward a “BIG ROCK! BOULDER!” Whatever dialogue option you choose, the conversation ends with a clear instruction to bring him a Boulder.
Step 2: Obtain a Boulder. This item comes from fishing in Vertigo and is extremely rare, with a stated 1-in-1,000,000 chance to catch when you are inside that region. Vertigo itself is only accessible when a Strange Whirlpool appears somewhere in the Ocean, so you may spend some time just waiting for the entry point to spawn before you can even attempt to roll for a Boulder.
Step 3: Return to Dave with the Boulder in your inventory. If you speak to him without holding it out, he loops through lines like “WHERE BOULDER?” and “ME WANT ROCK” and the quest does not advance. To progress, equip or hold out the Boulder and then interact with him again.
Step 4: Show him the Boulder. Dave reacts with “BOULDER! SHOW!” and, if you are actually holding it, he approves with “GOOD ROCK.” At this point, he awards 5,000,000 XP for completing the first quest. Importantly, the Boulder is not consumed; it stays in your inventory even after he is satisfied.
Quest 2: Bring 250 Rocks to Dave
After the Boulder handoff, Dave immediately escalates his demands from a single large rock to “MANY STONE.” This second quest is where the grind really sits.
Step 1: Talk to Dave again once the first quest is complete. He starts with “MORE ROCK” and pushes the conversation toward a specific quantity, eventually shouting for “250 ROCK.” Agreeing to this request formally starts the second quest, which appears as “Find the Rocks.”
Step 2: Accumulate Rocks. Standard Rocks are a common item, so the difficulty comes from quantity, not rarity. You need at least 250 Rocks in your inventory at the same time for Dave to accept the turn-in. If you speak to him before hitting that threshold, he comments on your current count with a line that effectively says you only have a certain number and need more, then ends the dialogue.
Step 3: Return when you hold 250 or more Rocks. Once your inventory hits that mark, interacting with Dave again prompts “MANY ROCK! GIVE!” Choosing the response that hands over your rocks triggers the objective completion.
Step 4: Complete the delivery. Dave takes exactly 250 Rocks from your inventory in one transaction, regardless of whether you are carrying more than that. He celebrates with “ROCK MOUNTAIN!” and grants 1,000,000 XP for finishing the second quest. Any Rocks over the 250 requirement remain untouched.
Quest 3: Find the Final Rock
The last step is framed as a hunt for a “special” rock rather than another bulk delivery. Dave treats it like the culmination of his collection.
Step 1: Speak to Dave after turning in the 250 Rocks. He now says “ONE MORE ROCK” and stresses that this is the “SPECIAL ROCK! LAST ROCK.” Pushing the dialogue forward commits you to the third quest, which appears as “Find the Final Rock.”
Step 2: Locate the final Rock. Dave does not give location hints in his dialogue beyond calling it “cool” and “awesome.” The important behaviour is how he responds to whatever you bring him. If you interact with him while holding the wrong item, he simply asks, “WHERE LAST ROCK?” and ends the conversation, which signals you have not met the condition yet.
Step 3: Return with the correct Rock in your inventory. When you are carrying the item the quest expects, Dave immediately reacts with “LAST ROCK! GIVE!” and accepts it when you confirm. A short exchange follows where your character acknowledges this as the final rock.
Step 4: Unlock the Dave Rod. Handing over the last Rock completes the questline in one motion. Dave declares that all rocks are “COMPLETE,” you receive 10,000 XP, and the Dave Rod is added to your account as a new fishing rod option.
From this point on, interacting with Dave switches to simple flavour dialogue; he comments that he has all the rocks and is happy, and you no longer have active objectives tied to him.
How the Dave Rod works in Fisch
The Dave Rod started life as an admin-exclusive reward but now sits behind Dave’s quest chain for any player willing to put in the time. It embraces the rock theme visually: the rod has a long, jagged, stone-like body with tapered ends, looking more like a carved monolith than a traditional fishing pole.
Its stats are not subtle. The rod lists an enormous Lure Speed value of 1e+21%, which effectively means it pulls bites almost instantly the moment you cast. The trade-off is extreme negative values on both Luck and Resilience, each listed as -1e+21%, so it behaves like a hyper-specific tool rather than a balanced, all-purpose rod. Control sits at 0.7, which is high and makes the actual reeling minigame feel steady, and Max Kg is boosted with a similarly outsized value, letting you haul in very heavy fish without hitting the weight cap.
On top of the numeric stats, the Dave Rod comes preloaded with two notable effects, Rage and Peppermint. Rage typically pushes catch speed and tension to aggressive levels, while Peppermint brings its own bonus flavour, so pairing both on a rod that already moves at absurd speed turns normal fishing into something closer to a rapid-fire experiment.
There is one catch. The rod can effectively “lock” onto a single fish. After you land a fish with it, the Dave Rod is bound to that catch and won’t behave as expected until you unequip and then re-equip it. That quirk makes it a situational pick for specific targets rather than a rod you leave on permanently.
Is Dave Rod worth chasing?
Whether the Dave Rod is worth the effort depends on what kind of Fisch player you are. Mechanically, the combination of near-instant bite speed, a high Control value, and huge Max Kg makes it a powerful tool for very specific scenarios, especially when you want to experiment with how the game handles extreme stats.
The path to it is not quick. Catching a Boulder in Vertigo is a low-probability event, needing a Strange Whirlpool just to reach the zone and then a 1-in-1,000,000 roll. Gathering 250 Rocks is less about luck and more about time, and the final Rock still requires some targeted hunting before Dave acknowledges it as the “last” one.
If you enjoy secret NPCs, long-odds drops, and collecting unusual rods, the Dave Rod fits neatly into that checklist. If you mainly want a straightforward progression tool with conventional stats, other rods are easier to reach and less fussy to use. Either way, Dave’s questline is one of Fisch’s clearer examples of how a simple joke – “ME WANT ROCK” – can quietly hide one of the game’s strangest rewards.
