Heavyweight Fishing Skill Tier List (August 2026)
Ranked on the effects the game itself lists, not on vibes. The single biggest divider is boss-skill immunity: a skill that makes you immune while it runs is worth more in an Enzo fight than any raw damage number, because Enzo's own skills are what kill runs. Stun length is the second axis, and rod-Power buffs the third. Where a skill's listed numbers and its drop rate disagree with each other, the rate is noted next to it.
S Tier
| Name | Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ruinous Sacrifice | Banner · Power burst | Boss-skill immunity and +999 rod Power for 10 seconds while dealing your current damage every second. It also drains 20 HP per second, so it is a check on your survivability, not a free button. |
| Heaven's Burden | Celestial Banner 5% | The most complete single skill: boss-skill immunity, a 10-second stun, 25 HP restored and your current damage every second. |
| Heavenbound Infinity | Verdant Bonefang 5% | A 20-second stun with immunity and 15 damage every 0.5s on a 50s cooldown. The longest listed stun in the game, and it drops from a fish rather than a banner. |
| Vajra Godcast | Banner | Immunity, a 7-second stun and a delayed second hit for 50% of your current damage five seconds later. |
| Shangqing Realm | Banner | The only banner skill that both grants immunity and bypasses boss invincibility — the answer to phases you cannot otherwise damage. |
| Twelvefold Resolution | Sanguine Fish 10% | Immunity, +30 rod Power for 10s, and it raises your next skill's damage by 1.3x for one turn. The best setup skill for a two-skill rotation. |
| One Hook Dominance | Sage Yijiu 5th quest | End of the Battlefield Isle quest chain — behind a 5M kg Frost Kingfish, a 6.5M kg Frost Queen Fish and 100 uses of Tenfold Convergence. |
| Apex Eagle Hunt | Taoist Merchant, 200M | Buyable with Cash rather than luck, and the Taoist Orb exists specifically to scale it. The catch is finding the merchant. |
| Celestial Gatebreaker | Celestial Banner 0.1% | A 0.1% secret. Plan around the 1,000-summon pity, not around hitting the rate. |
| Egoless Technique | Egoless Banner 0.1% | The Egoless Banner's secret, at the same 0.1% rate. |
A Tier
| Name | Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Whirlwind Fishing Art | Banner | Immunity plus a 12-second stun. Held out of S only because it adds no healing, Power or bypass on top. |
| Hellbreaking Hook | Flying Fish Emperor/Empress 10% | 360/400/440 damage and a 7-second stun — on a 999-second cooldown. Enormous per-cast value, roughly once per fight. |
| Tiger's Hunt | Banner | +30 rod Power for 15 seconds. Longer than Twelvefold Resolution's buff, but no immunity and no follow-up multiplier. |
| Cyclone Hook | Flying Fish Empress 50% | The most reachable secret-fish skill in the game at a listed 50% drop rate. |
| Taiji Quan Technique | Sage Yijiu shop | A 10-second stun with damage every second, bought with Cash. The best skill available before you touch a banner. |
| Dual Sonic Kicks | Sage Yijiu shop | Trades the stun for your current damage every second, up to 10 seconds — better once your damage stat outgrows the early game. |
| Upside Down Fishing | Tigerfang Whale | A flat 10-second stun from a Coconut Isle fog fish. |
| Sever The Gate v3 | Ha Dieu De, Frost Isle | The gate-line upgrade. This is the quest most people are looking for when they search for the 'heaven gate v3 upgrade NPC'. |
| Heartbreaker Cleave V2 | Lao Ngo, Battlefield Isle | Widely searched as 'beastbreaker cleave'; the board spells it Heartbreaker Cleave V2. |
| River Suppression | Maoshan Merchant, 200M | The Maoshan line's Cash purchase, gated behind the same roaming merchant. |
| Rolling Twin Dragons | Egoless Banner 1% | Mythical-rate pull. |
| Demon Mountainbreaker | Egoless Banner 1% | Mythical-rate pull. |
| Shadowless Taji Strike | Giang Lao, Bamboo Isle | The first quest skill most players can actually reach. |
B Tier
| Name | Role | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Leopard Lock | Sage Yijiu shop | 10-second stun at 2 damage per second — strictly better than Iron Grip Art for the same slot. |
| Iron Grip Art | Sage Yijiu shop | Same 10-second stun as Leopard Lock but half the damage per second. |
| Astral Backstep | Verdant Gar/Grouper 25% | A flat 60 damage. Useful only while your own damage is under 60. |
| Mountain Flip | Mistpeak Isle Mountain Fish 5% | The only reason to fish Mistpeak Isle, which has no rod seller. |
| Skyfall Stomp | Sage Yijiu shop | A 2-second stun. The tutorial skill — replace it as soon as Cash allows. |
Tier list revised:
How this ranking was built
Every skill in the game is listed on the full skill page with its source and its stated effect. The ranking above weighs three published properties, in this order:
- Boss-skill immunity. Six skills grant it. Against Enzo, that property is worth more than any damage figure, because Enzo's skills are what end runs.
- Stun length. A stunned fish is a fish that is not fighting back. Heavenbound Infinity's 20 seconds is the longest published stun in the game.
- Rod Power buffs. +30 for fifteen seconds, or +999 for ten at the cost of 20 HP per second — these change what you can catch, not just how fast.
Two things deliberately did not go into the ranking: rarity, and how hard a skill is to obtain. A 50%-drop skill like Cyclone Hook is not worse for being common, and a 0.1% banner secret is not better for being rare. Pair whatever you run with the right trait and the matching orb — a mismatched orb does nothing at all.