Farming Barracuda

Barracuda are excellent targets for farming. When you engage one there is a chance that another Barracuda will spawn and each of those spawned Barracuda has a chance to spawn another Barracuda. Even if you pull just two sometimes you will be left fight six or more. Each Barracuda has a chance to drop large scales and armoured scales which you can collect or sell on the Trading Post for profit. This route used to be more profitable, however, armoured scales have taken a dive in price. Even with that said, I expect to make at least one gold per half hour. In the examples I give below I make much more than that.

Circle the group hitting with melee.

When I farm Barracuda I do not do anything fancy. Killing them quick, imo, does not give you a huge advantage as you are eliminating time in which they could spawn more allies. Working in groups also does not help as usually the person you are working with only spreads the Barracuda out. They go down easy enough on their own, and their attacks are easy to side step. With my thief I merely pull a group of 3-5 then circle around them hitting them with my spear. More will spawn as some die off, but eventually you will clear the group. If you go down, do not worry, just target the Barracuda with the lowest health and rally off it's death. When you first start farming Barracuda you may wish to start by pulling 2-3 as occasionally they will triple in numbers rapidly and overwhelm you. It takes some experience to circle then at the right distance to take minimal damage.

The main items we are looking to farm are Large Scales and Armoured Scales (links to gw2db). Although while farming you will get quite a few tails fins, green and blue gear, and even the occasional yellow. Keep your eyes on the prize though, the scales will provide you with over 75% of the income from this farming location. Armored Scales and Large Scales (links to gw2spidy) have recently dropped in price. You may wish to horde your scales until the next spike in prices. They are also needed in high level crafting recipes such as legendary weapons and ascended back pieces. I am personally holding on to mine for my legendary weapon. There are two good spots that I know about for farming Barracuda which I will detail below.

Forstgorge Sound

Dimotiki Waypoint and the reef.

In Frostgorge you will want to head to Dimotiki Waypoint in the Northwest of the map. Once there dive into the water and head down and west. There are a number of reefs with Barracuda hiding in them. There are two large reefs each containing enough Barracuda for a single person to farm on their own constantly and consistently. If someone is farming in one spot just head over to the other reef and start there. All you need to do is swim into the reefs and come out with a train behind you.

A view from the bottom of a reef.

There are a number of other mobs in the area that you can take advantage of to help you kill the Barracuda. The underwater worms toss frost orbs that do an AoE slow. Just bring your mob of Barracuda in range while continuing to attack them to maintain agro. The Barracuda may attack the worm, if they do just kill the ones attacking you then finish up the ones on the the worm. Jellyfish are another good mob to pull Barracuda over to. Their AoE spin attack destroys Barracuda.  Just make sure you do not get hit yourself.

 Southsun Cove

Southsun cove farming area.

Southsun Cove also has an excellent spot to farm Barracuda. I just recently discovered this spot, and I think it may be better than Frostgorge. Starting in Lion's Arch head to the boat captain and head to Southsun Cove. Head to either Lion Point or Pride Point. Pride Point has a bank and a Trading Post if you require those before you begin. Once in Southsun head to the northern part of the Southsun Shoals and dive into the deeper waters. You will see a number of Barracuda with yellow names. This is the major difference between Southsun Cove and Frostgorge Sound. You will have to use a ranged weapon to pull the Barracuda together into a group to melee. On my thief I use my harpoon gun for this purpose.

A view of the coastal waters

The Barracuda will not agro on you if you swim past them, but they will be constantly be attacking the local Tuna and Sea Scorpions. If you want you can agro a Sea Scorpion and pull it to the Barracuda. The Barracuda will attack the Sea Scorpion while you attack the whole group. Be sure to agro all the Barracuda before they kill the Sea Scorpion or they will reset and the spawned Barracuda will disappear. Personally, I prefer to pull the Barracuda with my harpoon gun then finish them with my spear.

Farming Test

Last night and today after the reset I ran two farming runs in Southsun Cove. For the first I did not equip my magic find gear. I merely used a Omnomberry Bar and my spear which has a Superior Sigil of Luck. Together these provide +45% Magic Find. I farmed for 30 minutes for a grand total of 1g 79s 14c which breaks down as follows.

9 silver kill reward

67 Tail Fins - 10s 72c

3 White Items - 1s 15c

8 Blue Items - 6s 20c

4 Green Items - 5s 7c4

42 Large Scales - 52s 50c

7 Armoured Scales - 94s 50c 

Today, I farmed the same location for the same 30 minutes except I had on my Magic Find gear. I do not have a fancy set of Magic Find gear. It is just yellow gear with Superior Runes of the Pirate, and green accessories, and rings. With the Omnomberry Bar I have +125% Magic Find. Today I received 2g 14s 7c which breaks down as follows.

10 silver kill reward

56 Tail Fins - 8s 96c

6 White Items - 2s 54c

3 Blue Items - 2s 54c

2 Green Items - 3s 3c

1 Yellow Item - 30s

1 Unidentified Dye - 15s

38 Large Scales - 47s 50c

7 Armoured Scales - 94s 50c

Either way I made well over a gold per 30 minutes. The magic find does not have much of an effect, because the majority of the profit comes from the scales which appear not to be affected by magic find. Judging by the number of fins I received I can also assume I killed fewer Barracuda with the Magic Find gear than without. 

Conclusions

Farming Barracuda can be very profitable. I try to farm them for at least 30 minutes a day. If the price on scales goes up again this farming spot will only become more profitable. I have heard that there is another spot to farm Barracuda in the Cursed Shore, but I have not checked that spot out yet. I will leave a comment if and when I do. I have yet to find a farming spot that does as well as this spot, consistently.  Some other spots have a chance to drop rare and valuable items, but when they do not drop you are left empty handed. Even if you only get half the armoured scales I did in my tests you will still easily break the 1 gold per 30 minute mark.

Enjoy this spot and keep things friendly. Currently, there are not a lot of people farming this spot, but as it becomes more well known it will become harder to make a profit if people do not work together. Group up if you need too and pull the Barracuda into groups for mass killings, or just come back later when less people are around. Either way enjoy those profits while they last.