A Reel Downer is a secondary quest related to fishing in RuneScape Dragonwilds. While the major theme of the quest is about fishing, you will also get to explore around the world, taking part in different objectives but, most importantly, cheering up a sad fish. If you are into fishing, I will highly recommend getting into the quest, as you will unlock a new bait type in the game. There are no major boss battles or critical dialogue choices; it’s a quest about fishing.
In this guide, I will give you a complete walkthrough of the A Reel Downer quest and how you can complete the quest quickly in RuneScape Dragonwilds.
A Reel Downer quest Overview
Requirement: It would be better if you have completed the Icthlarin’s Little Helper primary quest. You would get to the A Reel Downer quest area after completing Icthlarin’s Little Helper partially.
This quest is located at Manafem Plains, which is a power level 7 region found within the Umbral Sands desert biome. You will find a small Garou campsite, located a bit high above “Ma” in Manafem Plains. Here, talk to the Taliesin – The Fisher NPC to start the quest A Reel Downer. The quest is about cheering up a sad, miserable fish. Here are the objectives we will run into during the quest:
- Catch Snivelling Sardine
- Obtain Ground Gypsum, Cactus Water, and Shimmerscale Powder
- Catch Depressed Desert Sole, Inconsolable Catfish, and Bawling Beltfish
Catch Snivelling Sardine
Our very first objective is “Put a Snivelling Sardine in the Bath.” When you start the quest, you will get a new bait type: Agony Auntchovy x10. You need to use the bait to catch the Snivelling Sardine near the water section in the Manafem Plains. Once you catch the fish, you will have to bathe it, but the fish will still look miserable. When you tell Taliesin about the fish being sad, he will mention performing a mineral bath to cheer up the fish.
Note: Make sure to use a Yew Fishing Rod to catch the fish, if you don’t have one, then you can craft it with x1 Yew Logs, x1 Desert Thread, and x1 Adamant Bar via the Blacksmith’s Bench.
Obtain Ground Gypsum, Cactus Water, and Shimmerscale Powder
The combination of all three ingredients required for the objective will help us create the mineral bath for the fish.
- Ground Gypsum: First, get yourself Gypsum from Gypsum Nodes found in Umbral Sands. Then use the Grindstone to make Ground Gypsum out of Gypsum.
- Cactus Water: You will get Cactus Water from Barrel Cactus found all around Umbral Sands. Commonly, these take 3 days to respawn and grant 2 Woodcutting XP when you chop them down.
- Shimmerscale Powder: Use Kalaphite Wings on the Grindstone to get Shimmerscale Powder.
After grabbing all the ingredients, head back to the Taliesin. Now use the mineral water on the sad fish, and suddenly all of its sadness will go away. Our miracle formula worked! Now Taliesin will ask us to catch three different fish in Umbral Sands to apply the mineral water to see if this magic formula works with other fish, as it did with the Snivelling Sardine.
Catch Depressed Desert Sole, Inconsolable Catfish, and Bawling Beltfish
You don’t have to go around the map to search for these fish; the game will provide a marker for all three fishing spots to help you catch them. One fishing spot is found north of Dunes of Uzzer, the second one is located a bit south, and the third one will be all the way south of the location.
Do note, you can’t just grind all three fish from one spot; you need to hit all three spots laid out in the objective to get all three fish. Fishing from the same location grants you the same fish every time.
Once you have caught all three fish, return to the Fisher, where we started the quest. Interact with him one last time to turn in all three fish, and this will complete the “A Reel Downer” quest, and you will get a Fishing Rod Rack as a reward item. The rack allows you to showcase your rods by putting them on the display.
Rewards:
- Fishing Rod Rack
- x1 A Reel Downer Reward pack – 10 x Adamantite Ore, 250x Garou Chit, 1x Super Focused Fishing Potion, and 1x Tome of Fishing Vol. 2
- You will also gain the ability to give Taliesin miserable fish for Garou Chit.
